DoD takes steps to expand use of telehealth services By Fred Bazzoli Published January 11 2018, in Health Data Management
The Department of Defense is expanding its ability to deliver telehealth services to active duty military personnel, veteran and their families by designating a provider of telemedicine services to operate on its networks.
The agency has issued an Authority to Operate (ATO) to GlobalMed, an international provider of telehealth services, thus enabling the company to put its virtual health applications, hardware and software directly on the DoD networks.
The vendor says the authorization will make their solutions available to the Military Health System, the DoD’s integrated healthcare system, which provides medical care in combat situations as well as at bases overseas, in addition to 57 hospitals and 400 clinics it operates domestically.
Like the Veterans Administration, the Department of Defense is looking to expand the amount of services provided remotely, lacking the bandwidth to accommodate the demand for care by all active duty service personnel, their dependents and retirees, many of whom are not eligible for VA services.
GlobalMed is the first provider of HIPAA-compliant clinical video collaboration to obtain an ATO from the DoD. The designation will allow the company to provide secure remote health services to those covered by the DoD anywhere in the world.
The company, based in Scottsdale, Ariz., also provides services to the Department of Veterans Affairs and the White House, as well as other non-governmental provider organizations.
“The Department of Defense is a huge healthcare provider, and network security is a high priority,” says Joel Barthelemy, CEO of GlobalMed. “GlobalMed is focused on every aspect of security and compliance throughout our vertically integrated software applications.
