This issue of Perspectives on Telepractice focuses on the history of telehealth and its evolution to telepractice involving SLPs and audiologists. As an emerging method of service delivery, the evidence is sparse but beginning to appear. Many trailblazers at ASHA and in the field are using telecommunication technology to provide treatment. Although telepractice is another tool in the arsenal of clinicians, there are privacy, licensure, and methodological considerations before undertaking this as a means of service delivery. The future looks bright as SLPs and audiologists move into this new arena to provide services to individuals with communication disorders.

Learning Outcomes
You will be able to:

• discuss the evidence base for telepractice, the challenges that exist, and the future directions of it
• list the key activities in ASHA’s role in facilitating telepractice
• describe a successful ongoing telepractice application
• describe potential telepractice-based violations of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA)
• describe a risk-assessment process to discern potential privacy-based vulnerabilities related to using Internet-based Voice Over the Internet Protocol (VoIP)

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