Why Teletherapy in a Post-COVID World

On Feb. 4, 1978, ATM usage languished. Consumers, suspicious of fraud, rejected ATMs in favor of in-person banking. Fast forward to Feb. 5, 1978, when 17 inches of snow fell on New York City within 24 hours. People desperately needed access to their cash, but hardly anything was open –not even the banks. And then came the transformation! Citibank began running television ads, showing one person frantically banging on the door of a closed bank during a blizzard –while another calmly extracted cash from an ATM. The slogan “The Citi Never Sleeps” was born.  Now, in early 2021, humanity finds itself attempting to climb out of the greatest public health crisis since 1918. Once again, a previously available but under-appreciated service delivery method (i.e., telehealth) has been drafted into action. This presentation will discuss the fundamentals of telerehabilitation and why it will continue to thrive in a post-COVID world.

Dr. Cohn is an experienced professor and administrator (associate dean and program director experience) with a demonstrated history of working in the higher education industry. She is skilled in innovative program development; distance education; communication, health, and rehabilitation curricula; multi-disciplinary program direction; and communication science and disorders. A leader in telehealth, she is the founding editor of the International Journal of Telerehabilitation, and a past director of the American Telemedicine Association.