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According to the American Telemedicine Association, telemedicine (sometimes called telehealth) is defined as "delivery of remote health services using technology". Specifically, Telemedicine is the use of telecommunication and information technologies in order to provide clinical health care at a distance. It helps eliminate distance barriers and can improve According to the American Telemedicine Association, telemedicine (sometimes called telehealth) is defined as "delivery of remote health services using technology". Specifically, Telemedicine is the use of telecommunication and information technologies in order to provide clinical health care at a distance. It helps eliminate distance barriers and can improve access to medical services that would often not be consistently available in distant rural communities. It is also used to save lives in critical care and emergency situations.
The main benefit of Telemedicine is that patients in rural areas, especially in developing countries, can receive healthcare from remotely located physicians. Patients in rural areas in many parts of the world have to travel between 5 to 15 hours before reaching a healthcare facility.
The following figure (Figure-1) shows a conceptual view of a Telemedicine system. The view shows three participant sites including the physician at the point-of-care, the specialized physicians and the remote information server. At the point of care, a physician acquires the ECG or any other medical information and other relevant information during the clinical intervention using a mobile device and sends it to the information server. Then the information is processed and a results report is automatically produced and stored on the server. Finally, the specialist connects to the information server and gets the results to be analyzed and used in the patient diagnosis.
Telemedicine systems basically consist of the following approaches:
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Store-and-forward: As the name suggests, uses technologies to collect medical information, store it in a central location and forward it to a provider or other destination. One of the most common forms of store-and-forward telemedicine is teleradiology, which allows radiologists to read nearly any study from workstations that are connected to the Internet. Teleradiology allows healthcare facilities to offer 24/7 services without having a radiologist on site.
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Remote monitoring: This allows providers to receive health information from devices attached to, or utilized by, their patients. Providers can monitor the progress of their patients and the technology actually improves the patient's outcome since the procedure could be performed while the patient was sleeping.
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Interactive services: This involves providing care synchronously and/or asynchronously via telecommunication technologies. Interactive services may be as simple as a phone call between the provider and patient or as complex as telerobotic surgery. They may involve realtime information exchanges between the patient and the physician
Telemedicine services can be subdivided into the following broad categories:
GENERAL HEALTH CARE (Consultation and Advice)
TELECARDIOLOGY
TELEDENTISTRY
TELERADIOLOGY
TELEDERMATOLOGY
TELEPATHOLOGY
TELENURSING
TELEPHARMACY
Major benefits of a Telemedicine Consultation:
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Patients in rural areas, especially in developing countries, have to travel 10-15 hours before reaching a healthcare facility
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Lack of specialists in certain areas like cancer, neurologists, and other areas is causing serious healthcare problems
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Lack of trained nurses and midwives who can travel to rural areas leaves many patients without medical care
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Patients in underserved populations who would like to get healthcare service from world class facilities without travelling there.
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The specialist actually hears your medical history and current condition directly from you and your provider instead of the specialist receiving a dictated note in the mail.
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With the use of ENT medical peripherals such as a nasopharyngoscope, your provider can pass this medical peripheral into your nasal passage which will allow your provider and the ENT specialist simultaneous crystal clear video of your throat and vocal cords. The specialist may ask you to cough, pronounce letters, etc. in order to get the best outcome for the diagnosis.
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The specialist can diagnose and recommend treatment immediately.
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Your provider has the opportunity throughout the examination to ask questions and learn from each and every consultation. The continual education of your provider via medical consultations is an immeasurable benefit to all his patients.
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