eHepatology

eHealth is the use of medical information exchanged from one site to another via electronic communication to improve the patient’s health status. eHealth typically involves a specialist providing services to a primary care provider to assist with diagnosis and treatment planning.

Effective treatments are available for hepatitis C patients, but they are not accessible to everyone and some do not have the knowledge to manage the side effects when treatments are available. This is why eHealth can help patients with hep C who would normally not seek treatment due to certain obstacles.

eHepatology helps improve the care of hep C patients in rural and under-served populations by equipping the primary care provider to manage their patients.

How it Works

• Patient remains with their PCP and in their local community
• PCP consults with specialist via video conference
• Consultations are on a set date
• Progress of patient can be discussed
• Assistance in decision making and plan of care is provided

How Does the Primary Care Provider Benefit?

• Receives continuing medical education
• Real time access to hepatology specialist
• Patient remains in local community
• No expense to physician
• Helps prevent progression of the disease
• Enhances professional development
• Allows for quality-of-care assessment and development of interventions to improve patient outcomes

How Does the Patient Benefit?

• Saves expense associated with travel and time away from work
• Eliminates driving distance to see a specialist
• Patient education materials can be discussed to address topics such as side-effect management and medication management, etc.