Mount Sinai Health System is launching telehealth services to allow patients to meet with physicians without setting foot in a doctor’s office.

“The time has come for telehealth to move to the next level by putting it into wider practice, and we’re proud to have done that here at Mount Sinai, which is at the forefront of the telehealth revolution,” said Kumar Chatani, Executive Vice President and Chief Information Officer for the Mount Sinai Health System.

Telehealth is also extending to the Emergency Department where a program has been launched to reduce readmissions and provide better patient outcomes.Among the first telehealth pilot projects to get underway, the Primary Care Program will allow physicians in the Mount Sinai Doctors Faculty Practice to offer remote patient consults using a secure connection. For instance, patients can now consult remotely with physicians through the TeleStroke program under the leadership of Aaron Tansy, MD, the Director of the Stroke Program at Mount Sinai Queens (MSQ). The physicians can also directly consult with their colleagues at The Mount Sinai Hospital in Manhattan providing a broader scope of expertise to help diagnose and treat patients.

Another telehealth program in partnership with a community healthcare center in upstate New York enables patients from rural areas to directly consult with Mount Sinai Health System pediatric epilepsy specialists.

This technology is also extending to the Emergency Department (ED) where a program has been launched to reduce readmissions and provide better patient outcomes by allowing healthcare professionals to communicate via telehealth with chronically ill patients in their homes before their symptoms cause them to seek care in the ED.