Telemedicine: Vast Potential and Increased Efficiency

Telemedicine is the use of medical information exchanged from one site to another via electronic communications to improve a patient’s clinical health status. Telemedicine includes a growing variety of applications and services using two-way video, email, smart phones, wireless tools and other forms of telecommunications technology. I believe this is a great way for doctors, dentist, and any other health care professional to easily get the information that they need quickly. This is a huge time saver and no one had to really wait around for the information. Some of the services that can be use are primary care and specialist referral services may involve a primary care or allied health professional providing a consultation with a patient or a specialist assisting the primary care physician in rendering a diagnosis. This may involve the use of live interactive video or the use of store and forward transmission of diagnostic images, vital signs and/or video clips along with patient data for later review. Remote patient monitoring, including home telehealth, uses devices to remotely collect and send data to a home health agency or a remote diagnostic testing facility for interpretation. Such applications might include a specific vital sign, such as blood glucose or heart ECG or a variety of indicators for homebound patients. Such services can be used to supplement the use of visiting nurses. Consumer medical and health information includes the use of the Internet and wireless devices for consumers to obtain specialized health information and on-line discussion groups to provide peer-to-peer support. Medical education provides continuing medical education credits for health professionals and special medical education seminars for targeted groups in remote locations. There a few different ways that the information can be provided like networked programs link tertiary care hospitals and clinics with outlying clinics and community health centers in rural or suburban