Rural backwaters or front-runners? Rural telehealth in the vanguard of psychology practice

Over 20% of the United States population lives in rural areas, and rural clients often face serious access barriers to receiving psychology services. The acuity of rural need and growing ubiquity of the Internet among rural communities create opportunities for psychologists to provide assessment and treatment services to support rural clients at a distance using telehealth. This article reviews recent developments in telehealth that can improve quality of care for rural clients, including a review of cutting-edge technologies (monitoring devices, sensors, smart homes, etc.), methods of electronically mediated service delivery, and next steps for validation of telehealth psychology services. Also addressed are payer issues, privacy and confidentiality, and methodology concerns for this rapidly growing field of telehealth.