What Is Telemedicine?
The World Health Organization (WHO) refers to telemedicine as “healing from a distance“. Telemedicine is simply defined as, “the remote delivery of healthcare services“.
It is the use of telecommunications technology and information technologies to provide remote clinical services to patients. Physicians use telemedicine for the transmission of digital imaging, video consultations, and remote medical diagnosis.
Types
There are 3 common types of telemedicine, which include but not limited to:
- Interactive Medicine – which allows patients and physicians to communicate in real-time while maintaining HIPAA compliance
- Store and Forward – which permits providers to share patient information with a practitioner in another location.
- Remote Patient Monitoring – which allows remote caregivers to monitor patients that reside at home by using mobile medical devices to collect data (e.g. blood sugar or blood pressure)
How is telemedicine set up?
Telemedicine offers healthcare using digital devices such as
- computer
- smartphone
In most cases, telemedicine uses
- video calling system for video conferencing
- prescription writing software for prescription writing
This is for informational purposes only. You should consult your clinical textbook for advising your patients.
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