Conducted by a group of doctors, lead researcher B. Christopher Frueh, Ph.D., a psychiatry professor at the Medical University of South Carolina, believes there are multiple groups of people who can benefit from videoconferencing, which allows patients and therapists to converse via closed-circuit television.
Clinicians can also conference with each other for references or discussion of cases.
The Department of Defense uses it to contact people on ships in the ocean. You can use it for prison-security purposes so the patients can stay in prison. His team culled anecdotal accounts on videoconferencing and case studies of various applications of the technology. Videoconferencing may have its disadvantages, including less privacy and confidentiality and a less fulfilling experience, but Frueh believes some patients may overcome these shortcomings by first meeting with the therapist.