Telehealth: Passing fad or lasting benefits?

Advocates of telehealth argue that the delivery of health services by means of communications ions technologies is both feasible and desirable. Nevert heless, the benefits of telehealth, due ro the variety of its applications and their uneven development, are not self-evident., The goal of this paper is to reflect on the processes by which telehealth applications do or do n ot contribute to the delivery of health sen ices. We propose a framework st ructuring a preliminary analysis of the match between needs and the possibi lities offered by telehealth. Four mechanisms of expected benefits are disc ussed: 1) decreasing patient transfers; 2) decreasing trips by providers an d patients; 3) meeting the needs of underserved populations; and 4) buildin g providers' and patients' knowledge and reducing rural isolation. We concl ude by stressing that the participation of providers is crucial, both in th e research on telehealth and in the steering of its evolution.