UnitedHealth Group's
Connected Care Telehealth Initiative
Quote Sheet
“Connected Care is the house call for the 21st century and is our latest innovation providing people with greater access to quality care. The combination of Cisco's technology and our national health care resources will make it easier for people to receive care where distance has been an obstacle.”
Stephen J. Hemsley, chief executive officer, UnitedHealth Group
“Educating and training more physicians is a long-term solution to addressing this country's physician shortage. Through Connected Care, we can advance access to medicine in America and spread clinical expertise over greater distances today to people who are suffering from inadequate access to care.”
Reed V. Tuckson, M.D., executive vice president and chief of medical affairs, UnitedHealth Group
“In developing advanced telemedicine technologies, we're unlocking new possibilities for how patients can interact with doctors and medical staff. The in-person visit with a doctor is no longer the sole 'gold standard' method for delivering high-quality health care services. Instead, we've now introduced a new care at-a-distance health care delivery model that better connects people, information and processes into one continuum of care. This new technology-enabled delivery model will improve productivity and efficiency in health care while at the same time minimizing costs for access to quality care services.”
Dr. Kaveh Safavi, Vice President Global Healthcare Practice, Cisco Systems, Inc.
"I found the Cisco HealthPresence visit wasn't any different from a visit to my regular family physician, except it was on campus and more convenient. The diagnostics were much faster and quality of consultation experience was better than what I'd expected.”
Shashi Kiran, San Jose trial patient
“The 'virtual office' provided me the ability to do a face-to-face with patients in this electronic setting & still made me feel like I could directly reach out to the patient.”
Nathan J. Wilson, D.O., AAFP, Health Information Physician Trainer & Virtual Office ‘expert’
HealthCare Partners Medical Group
San Jose trial physician
"The National Association of Community Health Centers (NACHC) is always proud to support new ideas and innovations designed to widen access to care for people living in medically underserved communities."
Dan Hawkins, Senior Vice President, Public Policy and Research,
National Association of Community Health Centers
"The Health IT Now Coalition strongly supports the nationwide adoption and use of health information technology (HIT) to improve care and reduce costs. One way to achieve this is through the promotion of telemedicine into the recognized everyday practice of care. Telemedicine enhances patient access to appropriate clinical services no matter where the provider or patient may be. That is why it is exciting to see UnitedHealth Group using telehealth because it improves access and can reduce costs. This is not just a convenience issue. Widespread adoption of telemedicine in the Medicare program could save between $2 billion to $4 billion per year. We know more can be saved system-wide. United's efforts reveal a broader commitment to reducing costs by responding to consumers. We look forward to working with United and other advocates to ensure Congress adopts incentives to use telehealth more broadly."
Joel White, Executive Director, Health IT Coalition
“ATA congratulates UnitedHealth Group and Cisco for embracing telemedicine as a way to help patients and caregivers get the help they need when and where it's needed. Such a nationwide initiative is a model for policy makers as well as health providers and payers. It demonstrates how we can use technology to expand access to health care and improve the quality of care while, at the same time, significantly reduce health care costs.”
Jonathan D. Linkous, CEO, American Telemedicine Association
"For more than 30 years, the Morehouse School of Medicine has been dedicated to training the next generation of primary care physicians to serve underserved communities, in both in rural and urban areas. Telehealth marks an important step forward, in terms of improving access and delivery of health care. We look forward to utilizing this powerful new technology, and we commend UnitedHealth Group's leadership, in partnership with Cisco, to advance the effort to reduce the disparities that too often exist in today's health care system."
Dr. John Maupin, President, Morehouse School of Medicine
"New innovations in telehealth and other health information technologies have great potential to increase access to care and reduce health disparities. UnitedHealth's Connected Care Initiative is an important and innovative new program that will help ensure that geography is not a barrier to receiving the best available care."
Dr. Brian Smedley, VP and Director, the Health Institute@ Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies