The Office of Emergency Management at the Department of Veterans Affairs in Martinsburg, W.Va., has awarded a contract to Troop Health Initiatives for the JEMS Technology Disaster Relief Telehealth System.

When measured against conventional care, second generation home-based telehealth had no significant impact on health-related quality of life, depression or anxiety for patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, diabetes or heart failure over 12 months, according to a Feb. 26 BMJ Group study.

The number of patients using telehealth services is expected to increase six-fold between 2012 and 2017, from 227,000 patients to 1.3 million patients, according to a report from IMS Research.

CampusMD, which provides college students with around-the-clock mobile access to U.S.-licensed physicians, has launched a nationwide telehealth service available either directly to students and their parents or through wholesale arrangements with partner colleges and universities.

While it is widely believed that telehealth strategies can improve patient outcomes by enabling providers’ instant access to specialized clinical knowledge, concerns over telehealth costs remain. An analysis of available data suggested those concerns lack substance, according to research published online Dec. 4 by Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes.

BOSTON—Connected health will become the standard of care in the future, said the panelists of a session of connected health at scale on Oct. 26 at the ninth annual Connected Health Symposium.

Sentara Healthcare and MDLIVE has entered a partnership that will allow the integrated healthcare system to expand healthcare access by offering patients telehealth consults with the health IT vendors communications platform.

Providers are extending healthcare to rural patients with financial assistance from the rural healthcare pilot program, a six-year-old initiative that provides funds for telehealth projects. So far, the program has committed an estimated $369 million of the total $415 million set aside, according to an evaluation published Aug. 13 by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).