The Register's Editorial: Feds helping to expand telemedicine in Iowa
"Rural hospitals, nursing homes and clinics can benefit from the cost savings and access to specialists that telemedicine provides."
Those words were spoken by Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Ia., a well-known advocate of using technology to deliver health services in rural areas. He uttered the words two decades ago — long before many of us had email, let alone envisioned using a computer to talk face to face with someone, especially a doctor, in another town.
Harkin announced last month that the University of Iowa will receive a $500,000 federal grant to further its use of telemedicine.
Video-conferencing services at dozens of sites will help connect specialists with Iowans in rural areas. Children and the elderly will be among those able to access the same health services many urban residents take for granted, Harkin said.
The senator and experts at the UI know a doctor does not need to be in the same room with a patient to provide quality care. Psychiatrists evaluate, diagnose and decide what drugs to provide patients they've never met in person.
Specialists in Iowa City treat burn and stroke victims remotely. For years telemedicine has allowed veterans, prison inmates and nursing home residents to avoid traveling long distances for care.
When Harkin leaves the Senate in a few weeks, Iowans will miss his progressive advocacy on health care. This includes his efforts to help create an infrastructure to use technology to connect patients and providers.
Harkin's enlightened attitude, and that of experts at the UI, stand in contrast with Iowa Board of Medicine's attitude.
Yes, the board is now proposing administrative rules on telemedicine, finally attempting to provide formal guidance to physicians who use the technology to further health care. But the rule cannot be taken seriously if the board refuses to rescind its earlier rule on telemedicine.
Last year, at the urging of anti-abortion advocates, board members singled out a few physicians using video-conferencing to dispense a legal, abortion-inducing drug. The board required the physicians to provide in-person exams, be in the same room with a woman when she swallows the pill and schedule a follow-up exam at the same location.
Though this rule is being challenged in court. The board showed it is willing to defy the very premise of telemedicine if the members don't like the health service being provided. The board's new rules do not require physicians providing any other health service to conduct "in person" exams or to be present when patients swallow thousands of other drugs approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
A rural state like Iowa needs telemedicine. It needs members of Congress like Harkin who will work to fund it. And it needs a medical board that crafts one set of telemedicine guidelines that treats all physicians equally.
An administrative rule should be focused on protecting Iowans, not preventing the use of technology for health services that a group of board members finds objectionable.