As technology reshapes the healthcare landscape, remote health solutions are addressing disparities in rural and underserved communities. Roughly 60 million Americans, or 20% of the population, live in rural areas with limited access to healthcare. Remote health is starting to make care more accessible for the rural popoulation.
This article explores how remote technologies are supporting rural healthcare, where they’re most needed, and what recent data tells us about their growing impact.
Current Landscape of Remote Health Solutions
Patients living in rural communities often face long travel distances, limited healthcare facilities, and fewer provider options. These barriers contribute to higher premature mortality rates for for the five leading causes of death: heart disease, cancer, unintentional injuries, chronic lower respiratory disease, and stroke. Limited access to preventative services and consistent treatment poses risks for worse health outcomes among rural populations.
With reduced access to preventive care, rural patients are more likely to delay treatment until conditions become emergencies. This not only leads to worse outcomes but also drives up costs for both patients and health systems. In the following sections, we will discuss some remote health solutions that are providing better access the preventive care for rural communities.
Telemedicine Platforms
Telemedicine platforms are central to remote health strategies. They provide secure, HIPAA-compliant environments for virtual consultations, chronic disease monitoring, telepharmacy, and electronic health records. They alos remove the need for frequent in-person visits. Telehealth benefits rural communities because it connects them with providers more efficiently.
Sufficient broadband connectivity is key to supporting remote health solutions. However, many communities still do not have the infrastructure needed to support video visits and data exchange. A recent Federal Communications Commission report, showed that 22.3% of rural Americans and 27.7% of those living on Tribal lands don’t have access to broadband, compared to just 1.5% in urban areas. Closing the broadband gap is needed to overcome barriers to telehealth and preventing healthcare disparities.
Some remote monitoring systems enable care in remote areas with limited connectivity. Solutions like mobile health applications and wearable devices can track health metrics and help identify potential issues for patients and providers. While traditional remote monitoring relies on consistent connections, mobile apps can store and transmit patient data when networks become available again. Rural telehealth facilitates proactive healthcare and chronic condition management regardless of location or connectivity barriers.
Identifying Areas in Need
With only 65% of tribal lands having high-speed internet as of 2021, patients are unable to engage in video consultations, share health information, and manage health needs remotely. The following sections identify the areas in the U.S. where remote health access is critical.
Appalachia
The Appalachian region, stretching across 13 states, faces persistent healthcare access challenges. Residents in distressed Appalachian counties report diabetes rates 1.4 times higher than those in more stable areas. Grants like the Growing Rural Economies with Access to Technology (GREAT) initiative are expanding broadband access in these communities. With high adoption of fiber broadband, Appalachia is well-positioned to benefit from remote health tools, such as mobile apps that support virtual consultations and chronic disease tracking.
Native American Reservations
Many Native American reservations are located in remote areas and struggle with inadequate healthcare services. Remote health solutions can enhance access to medical services, addressing the unique healthcare needs of these communities. The Indian Health Service offers telehealth services that include specialty care in behavioral health, dermatology, endocrinology, wound management, and rheumatology, though availability varies by location.
IHS operates two national telehealth programs:
- The IHS-Joslin Vision Network Teleophthalmology Program aims to prevent diabetes-related blindness.
- The Telebehavioral Health Center of Excellence Telebehavioral Health Program provides culturally sensitive telebehavioral health services to American Indian and Alaska Native populations.
- Additionally, IHS has numerous regional telehealth programs.
Midwest and Great Plains
Rural areas in the Midwest and Great Plains also experience healthcare shortages. Remote health technologies, with a focus on app-based data transfer, can alleviate the burden on local healthcare facilities and improve overall health outcomes. Altru Health Systems, a North Dakota-based nonprofit health system, provides telehealth services and expanded services during the COVID-19 pandemic to provide safer and broader care.
Altru allows almost all of its 393 providers to provide video visits, phone visits, message-based eVisits, and provider-to-provider consultations to serve patients across its coverage area. Altru is a member of the Great Plains Telehealth Resource and Assistance Center (gpTRAC) and follows advance best practices in telehealth. gpTRAC is a federally funded programs that provides free telehealth training, consultations, and resources to healthcare organizations seeking to implement, expand, or improve telehealth services.
Understanding Remote Health Solutions
The impact of remote health solutions can be seen in recent statistics that reflect their adoption and effectiveness. Reconnect4Health in Greenville, NC, is a remote patient monitoring platform for chronic disease management. It reports a nurse-patient ratio of 1:100, as opposed to a clinical in-house ratio of 1:7. This statistic highlights the growing acceptance and reliance on remote health solutions in populations that face challenges in accessing healthcare.
The UCDavis Health telehealth program ACTIVATE uses remote health solutions in partnership with community health centers in underserved and rural communities. In the program’s first six months, 50 patients transmitted over 10,000 glucose and blood pressure readings. By the program’s conclusion, most participants had achieved healthy glucose levels and lower blood pressure.
Remote health solutions are technological innovations that represent a pivotal shift in healthcare accessibility for rural communities. Though remote health solutions expanded during the pandemic, they still failed to reach many underserved populations. These significant disparities require dedicated efforts to increase access and eliminate barriers among these groups.
Closing these telehealth disparities is vital to achieving health equity. As advancements continue, the hope is that remote health technologies will ensure that quality healthcare is available to all, regardless of geographical location.
