The American journal of managed care
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Editorial
The health IT special issue: enduring barriers to adoption and innovative predictive methods.
Electronic health record systems have the potential to significantly improve care coordination and, ultimately, clinical care delivery. Still, it is clear that these systems are not silver bullets that will automatically result in better coordination of care and quality.
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Telemedicine offers a promising solution to the growing physician shortage, but state-based medical licensing poses a significant barrier to the widespread adoption of telemedicine services. We thus recommend a mutual recognition scheme whereby states honor each other's medical licenses. Successfully implementing mutual recognition requires policy, technological, and administrative changes, including a federal mandate for states to participate in mutual recognition, consistent standards for using and regulating telemedicine, a mechanism to enable interstate data sharing, financial support for states, and a "state of principal license" requirement for physicians. Reforming the United States' outdated system of state-based medical licensure can help meet patient demand for virtual care services and improve access to care in rural and medically underserved areas.