The ATA Business and Finance SIG serve as a collaborative network resource for highlighting successful business and financial telehealth and telemedicine strategies which support the development of sustainable and viable programs, services and healthcare solutions.

This SIG was established in 1999 to support the expansion and utilization of telehealth, remote monitoring and disease management applications in the patient’s place of residence. These services may be provided through a variety of healthcare delivery models that include but are not limited to home care, hospital-based care, nursing home care, and call centers. Areas of interest include: raising public and professional awareness about the benefits derived from home telehealth and remote monitoring, developing practice guidelines and protocols, advocating for services through state and federal government funding, gathering information and developing a data repository for sharing information about outcomes of services to include quality of care, evaluating costs and benefits, and gathering resource information on available and evolving technologies. This SIG sponsors tutorials, courses, educational workshops and seminars and a web page that provides important information and numerous documents and reports in support of this field.    

The success of telehealth applications is dependent upon a number of considerations, many of which are related to human factors (HF): how humans interact with technical systems during use, training, and maintenance.

The Interstate Telehealth Special Interest Group (SIG) creates a forum for national interstate communication, cooperation, coordination, and potential collaboration and advocacy in telehealth expansion across state borders. The SIG provides a network for sharing knowledge and experiences related to telehealth within the national community addressing individual state’s development and use of telehealth, as well as cross-border initiatives addressing a spectrum of clinical specialties and health issues both regional and global, respectful of each state’s needs, capabilities, and perspectives.

The ATA mHealth, Technology, and Distance Learning Special Interest Group is the technology “center of excellence” and focus on technologies which enable meaningful practice and outcomes for providers and patients in the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of disease. The SIG expounds on telemedicine technologies and how they should be used by providers and patients in the practice of telemedicine including prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and education for both clinical and educational applications = telemedicine and telehealth. The scope of the mHealth, Technology, and Distance Learning SIG would exclude those technologies and practices where there is no prevention, diagnosis, or treatment of disease.

The Ocular Telehealth SIG (formally the International Consortium for Ocular Telehealth (ICOT) Chapter) promotes the development and advancement of the use of telemedicine in fields related to ophthalmology, optometry and optical engineering. Ocular Telehealth participants include individuals from academia, industry, government and healthcare with an interest in providing ocular care through telecommunications technology. The Ocular Telehealth SIG focuses on eye and adnexa issues, using the eye as a window to the health status of other related bodily systems.

The purpose of the Pediatric Telehealth Special Interest Group is to promote and foster the growth and provision of a broad spectrum of telehealth services for infants, children and adolescents.

The purpose of the Teledermatology SIG is to foster, promote and support the field of teledermatology within a diverse group of professionals. Areas of interest include developing standards and protocols for teledermatology, developing a database to collect teledermatology activity in the United States, reviewing literature for outcomes studies, and developing recommendations for reimbursement codes for teleconsultations. The SIG sponsors tutorials, courses and other educational seminars in Teledermatology as well as this web page that provides important information and numerous documents and reports in support of this specialty field.

The Telehealth Nursing SIG interests includes developing and reviewing existing standards and guidelines for telehealth nursing (e.g. competencies, core principles) and increasing awareness globally and disseminating information to one’s legislators or government health organization to advance the role of the telehealth nurse in the 21st century.

The TeleICU/Acute Care committee provides a stabilizing influence for organizational concepts and directions to be established and maintained with a visionary view for the TeleICU/Acute Care environment. The TeleICU/Acute Care SIG may collaborate with other SIGs on key aspects of driving telehealth forward within the acute care space.  Aspects may include advancing state and federal reimbursement, collecting and reporting quality metrics to validate improved outcomes, discussing and implementing evidence based standards, and transparently sharing information with committee members.

The Telemental Health Special Interest Group includes administrators, clinicians, and information technology professionals. Our goal is to enhance and support the use of technology in the delivery of mental health services.

The Telerehabilitation SIG works to develop innovative systems “tools” to be used for telerehabilitation, to collect data of evidence-based outcomes of telerehabilitation clinical applications and acts as a resource for policy and reimbursement issues.