Telehealth provides a solution to meet the needs of Veterans for VA’s non-institutional care services. In 2005, the national Store and Forward Telehealth (SFT) network was developed to support screening for diabetic eye disease, and was expanded in 2010 to include teledermatology. With the fiscal year (FY) 2011-FY12 Telehealth Expansion Initiative, VA’s national Clinical Video Telehealth (CVT) network was formalized to deliver video-consultation services between VA Medical Centers (VAMC) and Community-Based Outpatient Clinics (CBOC) and deliver care into the home. Home Telehealth (HT) uses informatics, disease management and remote access technologies to support the care and case management of Veteran patients with chronic conditions, such as diabetes and heart disease, in their homes and local communities. Currently, the program supports 90,000 patients; this number is expected to continue to increase beyond fiscal year 2016.

HTRE Phase 2 puts medical devices in patient homes to improve the quality of care and standard of living for Veterans by reducing hospital admissions, clinic visits, and emergency room attendances. These medical devices are provided by third party vendors, under contract to Veterans Health Administration, who transmit data to its servers that are hosted in VA data centers. The HTRE Phase 2 program aims to serve the two to three percent of patients who use 30 percent of costs, and are frequent clinic attendees and require urgent hospital admissions. Development and delivery of the Web-based IHTA will improve care for patients with chronic conditions who benefit from more frequent monitoring, resulting in better health levels with fewer emergencies, happier patients, and lower costs.