Telemedicine allows
transmission of health care services to wherever a patient
is in need, from wherever his Doctors are on line. This
is done with the use of networked environment in hospitals,
clinics or remote operation theaters etc.
Some of the potential benefits of
Telemedicine can be summarized as follows:
Accessing Inaccessible:
Telemedicine can provide and improve access to health
care in previously un-served or under-served areas.
Improved quality of care:
Telemedicine allows the consultation to take place among
the referring physician, the consulting physician, the
patient, and the patient’s family through interactive
video with critical information of the patient available
on-line. Also, the physicians or other personnel at
remote locations can be educated during the consultations
with specialty physicians and other experts, increasing
their ability to treat other similar cases in the future.
Reduced cost: The
travel cost of the patients for specialty care, the
travel cost for health care professionals for continuing
education or consultation, the personnel / equipment
cost for not having to keep specialty care facility
in rural hospitals, and other costs can be either eliminated
or reduced.
Reduced isolation:
Telemedicine provides a peer and specialist contact
for patient consultations and continuing education.
For consultations between colleagues and between patients
and physicians, it has been found that color, full motion
video is critical as it creates a simulated face-to-face
communication where verbal and visual communication
plays an important roles.
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