It is critically important to make health IT accessible for all and to achieve equitable adoption among aging patients, people with hearing and eyesight impairment, as well as those who live in communities underserved by a lack of high-speed broadband access.
“Access to telehealth services can be a lifeline to patients across the country and facilitates unprecedented expansion in access to crucial health care services,” notes an AMA Board of Trustees report whose recommendations were adopted at the 2024 AMA Interim Meeting in Orlando, Florida.
The board report cites research showing that millions of older adults are not ready to use video visits due to barriers including that they are inexperienced with the technology, have trouble hearing or seeing well enough or lack internet-enabled devices. In addition, EHRs lack a standard way to store and retrieve the advanced-care planning documents that are especially important in the care of older-adult patients.
To help remove barriers that prevent patients from fully realizing the potential of technology that can open access to care and promote better health outcomes, the AMA House of Delegates modified existing policy to encourage:
- Initiatives to measure and strengthen digital literacy, with appropriate education programs, and with an emphasis on programs designed with and for historically marginalized and minoritized populations.
- The development of improved solutions to incorporate structured advance-care planning documentation standards that best meet the requisite needs for patients and physicians to easily store and access in the EHR complete and accurate advance-care planning documentation that maintains the flexibility to capture unique, patient-centered details.
- Hospitals, health systems, and physician practices to provide a method other than electronic communication for patients who are without technological proficiency or access.
From AI implementation to EHR adoption and usability, the AMA is fighting to make technology work for physicians, ensuring that it is an asset to doctors—not a burden.
Separately, delegates also reaffirmed policy calling for appropriate payment for care delivered via telehealth and making telehealth reimbursement permanent for Medicare and all health insurance providers. Visit AMA Advocacy in Action to find out what’s at stake in supporting telehealth and other advocacy priorities the AMA is working on.
Read about the other highlights from the 2024 AMA Interim Meeting.
