Inaugural Summit on Behavioral Telehealth: Technology for Behavior Change & Disease Management

Partner Michael Blau will be a keynote speaker and participate in a panel discussion at The Center for Business Innovation’s Inaugural Summit on Behavioral Telehealth: Technology for Behavior Change & Disease Management, May 31 – June 1, 2007 at The Conference Center at Harvard Medical in Boston, MA.

Keynote Address: Legal, Regulatory and Policy Considerations in Behavioral Telehealth
Date: Friday, June 1, 2007
Time: 10:45 a.m. – 11:15 a.m.

This session will address the regulatory and public policy environment for behavioral telehealth. Federal and state programs that promote the development of telemedicine services will be discussed together with countervailing regulatory obstacles to internet-based behavioral health programs. Topics addressed will include:

• Models for practicing across jurisdictional lines that comply with state licensure requirements;
  
• Vehicles for investment in behavioral telehealth that are consistent with restriction on the corporate practice of medicine;
  
• FDA regulation of clinical decision support software and prescribing practices;
  
• Federal and state privacy protections; and
  
• Consumer protection considerations. 
   

Topic: Concluding Panel Discussion
Date: Friday, June 1, 2007
Time: 12:00 p.m. – 1:00 p.m.

This panel of experts with diverse backgrounds will focus on the opportunities, challenges, and barriers that lie ahead in the implementation and dissemination of behavioral telehealth integration into primary care and disease management. The panel will address such issues as:

• Which are the most promising opportunities for effective technology solutions at the intersection of behavioral health and disease management?
  
• What are the challenges that must be overcome to achieve success?
  
• What are the policy-based obstacles and barriers (e.g., licensure, credentialing, liability, regulatory issues, reimbursement, etc.)
  
• What steps could government take to facilitate dissemination?
  
• What steps can the private sector take?
  
• Where are the landmines to be avoided?

Moderator: 

• Steven Locke, MD, Research Psychiatrist, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Associate Professor of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School & Associate Professor of Health Sciences and Technology, MIT

Panelists:

• Michael Blau, Partner, Foley & Lardner LLP
  
• John Herman, MD, Director of Clinical Services and Director of Postgraduate Education, Department of Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital
  
• Robert M. Kolodner, MD, Interim National Coordinator, Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, Department of Health and Human Services
  
• Joseph C. Kvedar, MD, Director, Center for Connected Health, Partners HealthCare & Vice-Chair, Dermatology, Harvard Medical School
  
• Arvind Patel, MD, MPH, eBusiness Clinical/Telehealth Consultant & Former Executive/Medical Director, Maine Telemedicine Services (MTS)