The American Telemedicine Association (ATA) defines telemedicine as “use of information exchanged from one place to another via electronic communications to improve a patient’s health status.”
The telephone, the internet, internet video, email and other technological advances permit the evaluation of patients by a physician even if the patient is in a remote location, or not physically present. It permits a rural physician to consult, obtain education, access medical records and monitor a patient from a distance. It allows for monitoring a patients condition from another location in real time. Using this concept patients can obtain consultations from physicians, nurses and medical insurers.
Telemedicine can be used for storing and forwarding patients data as an electronic health, or medical record. This method can also be used in medical fields that offer consultation services where the physical presence of the patient is not essential such as; radiology, pathology, dermatology and hematology.
Real time conversations for evaluation and consultation purposes can be done between the patient and the doctor. General practitioners in rural areas can consult with specialized staff in located in the City Hospital in real time about the condition of a patient.
Remote monitoring of a patient is another benefit of the telemedicine concept. A hypertensive or a diabetic patient can be followed by medical and ,or, paramedical staff using this technology.
This entry was posted on Saturday, August 20th, 2011 at 12:00 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
