Telehealth is “Here to Stay,” Says Dr Edward Kaftarian

In part 2 of this video, Psych Congress steering committee member Edward Kaftarian, MD, CEO of Orbit Health Telepsychiatry, Encino, California, explores why telehealth is “here to stay” and why he hopes government officials will continue to have an open policy about telehealth. This interview, conducted by Meagan Thistle, associate digital editor, Psych Congress Network, took place at this year’s Psych Congress in San Antonio, Texas.

In the previous part 1, Dr Kaftarian discusses the impact telepsychiatry has had on access to mental healthcare, including removing barriers.

In part 3, Dr Kaftarian describes the advances in medical records as a shareable resource and how market forces are driving telehealth. He also discusses what clinicians can learn about their patients that they may not have gathered on-site in an office. 

Read the transcript:

Meagan Thistle: Do you think that telepsychiatry is here to stay? I know when we were in the public health emergency, there was a lot of laws in place that allowed for it to be more easily accessed. How does that play into it?

Dr Edward Kaftarian:  Meagan, yeah, I definitely think that telepsychiatry is here to stay. It's like you can't unring that bell, or you can't put that genie back in the bottle. People are fully embracing telehealth now. It's hard to imagine going back to how it was before.

Especially because some of the people who had reluctance to embrace telepsychiatry, have now experienced it because they've been forced to. They realized that some of their preconceptions have been proven to be false, that they can get high-quality care. Also, they're noticing how convenient it is.

It'd be very difficult to convince somebody who has had a good experience with a telehealth visit, to go and travel and go sit in a waiting room and to endure all of the barriers that you have there.

As far as the regulatory changes in the laws, I'm very optimistic about that as well. Meagan, before the pandemic, we were advocating strongly for the administrators and government officials and policymakers to consider telehealth. They were, in many cases, reluctant to. There were some really archaic rules around telehealth.

Now with the public health emergency declaration allowing more people to access telehealth, especially those who need controlled substances, that they weren't able to get those, and now temporarily, they can, it's going to be very hard to go back to how it was before, where things were restricted.

It'd be very unpopular to go back. We'll see, but I'm hoping that we have a continued open policy about telehealth.

Thistle:  I agree. As you said, people have a lot more access to it. They beat the traffic when they just turn on the computer or the phone or whatever. Hoping that it's here to stay, and we can see you all help more folks out.

Dr Kaftarian:  I would add, Meagan, that those that are digital natives, that are used to technology, are going to be particularly hard-pressed to do an in-person visit. In fact, it's going to be strange for them to say, "Well, why would I have to drive somewhere when I can get the care here?"

Also, regardless of generations, or digital natives, I would say that everybody is now used to having things on demand. How many of us do all of our shopping in the mall these days? We have online shopping. We have banking, almost all of it is done online. There will be a role for on-site like sometimes people want to go to a mall to feel the fabric and to see what exactly they want.

Sometimes people need to go to the bank to get something more complex done. There will be a role for on-site healthcare as well. We're never going to fully get away from that. Healthcare today involves so much technology that it's not just a matter of on-site versus remote because everything is going to start to become hybrid and completely melded into one another.

Now you'll see from the incredible talks that my colleague, Dr. Chan, has talked about with apps, technology like apps are going to continue to integrate within healthcare. Then other technologies like remote monitoring, I see a huge future in that. It's all about getting the data and separating the signal from the noise because there's so much data out there.

Whether it's in person or remote, there's all kinds of data that's actionable. We need to sort through the huge amount of data to find the data that actually can be acted upon to further the health of the patient. For me, the future is not about debating whether it's on-site versus remote, it's trying to integrate everything. The key to it would be integration.

Edward Kaftarian, MD is a nationally recognized psychiatrist and leader in the field of telepsychiatry and healthcare technology. Trained at the Johns Hopkins Hospital, he is board-certified in Psychiatry, Forensic Psychiatry and Addiction Medicine. Dr Kaftarian has served in a variety of executive roles within the California prison system, including chief psychiatrist, senior psychiatrist, medical director, and director of pharmacy. He is the founder of California’s Statewide Prison Telepsychiatry Program, which is the largest correctional telepsychiatry program in the world. Dr Kaftarian is currently the Chairman and CEO of Orbit Health Telepsychiatry, a company that provides telepsychiatry services to jails and prisons.