Telehealth in Rural Hospitals ― Lessons Learned from Pennsylvania

Raising the quality of healthcare while lowering the cost and increasing accessibility in rural counties is an extremely challenging problem. Telehealth, an "umbrella" term for telemedicine, eHealth, telecare, mHealth, and telepsychiatry, has been proposed as a possible solution. This book reports the results and conclusions of a year-long investigation into all of the factors involved. Telehealth is the use of electronic information and telecommunications technologies to support long-distance clinical healthcare, patient and professional health-related education, public health, and health administration.

Dr. Christine Judith Rhoads (CJ) is one of those people who make you breathless just listening to her accomplishments. A sought after speaker, consultant, author, and expert in many different aspects of business, she has been recognized by her community with several awards and honors including the Athena Leadership award, one of Pennsylvania’s Top Women in Business, Lehigh Valley’s Most Influential Women, Kutztown University’s College of Business Top Research of the Year, and many others.

Currently she is President and CEO for HPL Consortium, Inc., which develops technology tools to help people connect toward health, prosperity and leadership. She is also the managing director of HPL 501c3 Institute, providing those tools to small groups and nonprofits at a reduced fee so that they can help underserved populations achieve health, prosperity, and leadership as quickly and as efficiently as possible no matter how much (or little) technical expertise they hold. Rhoads is also a Professor in the College of Business at Kutztown University, where she teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in entrepreneurship and information technology.

Rhoads has a Doctorate in Education Technology from Lehigh University with a minor in Business Administration, and a Master’s degree from Temple University in Educational Psychology with a focus on Instructional Design.