RASHID BASHSHUR, PH.D.

Dr. Rashid Bashshur is professor of Health Management and Policy at the University of Michigan Health System and the Director of Telemedicine at the University of Michigan Health System. He has been a catalyst for the development and evaluation of telemedicine systems in the U.S. since the early 1970s. While at the National Academy of Sciences (Institute of Medicine) from 1970 to 1972, he was consultant to the Office of Economic Opportunity on the use telecommunications in supporting rural health programs. From 1973 to 1976, he was a member of the study section on health care applications at the RANN (Research Applied to National Need) Program of the National Science Foundation. He was funded by the NSF to evaluate a telemedicine program in rural Maine, and to assess the status of telemedicine in this country. He organized the first two national conferences on telemedicine, the results of which were published in book form, entitled Telemedicine: Explorations in the Use of Telecommunications in Health Care (1975). This book continues to be an authoritative volume on the conceptual, design, and empirical analysis of telemedicine.

The Indian Health Service and NASA commissioned Dr. Bashshur to report on STARPAHC (Space Technology Applied to Rural Papago Health Care), and the result was the book, Technology Serves the People (1981). The U.S. Army, Navy, Bell Laboratories, Office of Technology Assessment, the Department of Defense, and a number of foreign governments have sought his advice on telemedicine systems. In 1994 he served as the Editor of the Airlie House Report, the results of an invitational conference on telemedicine policy, submitted to the U.S. Congress, and in 1995 he Co-chaired the second such meeting and co-edited the Augusta Report, Telemedicine and the National Information Infrastructure, submitted to the U.S. Congress. He is Editor-in-Chief of the Telemedicine and e-Health Journal, chair of the 1997 and co-chair of the 1998 and 1999 American Telemedicine Association Annual Meetings.

Recent Publications:

Bashshur, R.L. "Critical Issues in Telemedicine," Telemedicine Journal, Vol. 3, No. 2, 1997, 113-126.

Bashshur, R.L., Sanders, J.H., and Shannon, G.W. (eds.) Telemedicine: Theory and Practice. Springfield: Charles C. Thomas, Publisher, Ltd., 1997.

Bashshur, R.L., Puskin, D., and Silva, J. "Telemedicine and the National Information Infrastructure," Telemedicine Journal, Vol. 1, No. 4, 1995, 321-375.

Bashshur, R.L., Neuberger, N., and Worsham, S. "Telemedicine and Health Care Policy: The New Federalism Taking Hold," Telemedicine Journal, Vol. 1, No. 3, 1995, 249-256.

Bashshur, R.L. "On the Definition and Evaluation of Telemedicine." Telemedicine Journal, Vol. 1, No. 1, 1995, 19-30.

Bashshur, R.L. "Telemedicine Effects: Cost, Quality, and Access." Journal of Medical Systems, Vol. 19, No. 2, 1995, 81-91.

Bashshur, R., Homan, R., and Smith, D. "Beyond the Uninsured: Problems in Access to Care." Medical Care 32.5(1994): 409-419.

Bashshur, R., Smith, D., and Stiles, R. "Defining Under-Insurance: A Conceptual Framework for Policy and Empirical Analysis." Medical Care Review 50.2(1993): 199-218.