Using telemedicine to combat drug addiction comes with challenges

Rural areas hit hard by the rise in opioid addiction often lack the needed treatment expertise, but health professionals may have a solution: video chat.

As reported by Kaiser Health News, $1.4 million in federal grants are funding pilot projects in Virginia, Tennessee and Kentucky that use telemedicine to connect patients with physicians who know how to treat addiction.

“This is an obvious potential direction to move in,” said Colleen Barry, a professor of health policy at Johns Hopkins University and co-director of its Center for Mental Health and Addiction Policy Research. “There are some real opportunities—and some pretty significant challenges.”

That’s especially true at the southwest Virginia clinic of family physician Robert Devereaux, MD. While telemedicine can link patients to psychiatrists, prescribing medication to wean addicts off opioids require in-person visits—and Devereaux already sees 25 to 30 patients a day.

There's also the concerns about payment. Federal grants can cover the technology cost but not the actual treatment, and patients may be left to pay out of pocket for the consultations and the medication.

For more on how physicians and regulators are trying to overcome these obstacles, click on the link below: