Telemedicine provides medical services through the assistance
of telecommunications. Telemedicine does not completely
replace medical expertise, but it is critical to providing quality
and efficient health care services.
Telemedicine is a rapidly growing part of the medical information
management market and is one of the largest and
fastest growing segments of the healthcare device industry. The
expected revenue by the end of 2000 is $21 billion.
In the United States, more than 60 percent of federal
telemedicine projects were initiated since 1998. The concept
of telemedicine exploits much of the state-of-the-art technology
available, especially if it is combined with the growth of the
Internet and World Wide Web (WWW).† 3G networks will further
guarantee a wireless extension of Internet-based services
and technologies. By reducing the time spent in copying, sending,
and archiving medical information, the cost of administration
and insurance claim processing is reduced. Mobile
medicine will enable healthcare workers to receive supply-ondemand
content in a mobile environment.
Some of the advanced telemedicine applications include
telecardiology, teleradiology, and telepsychiatry. Telecardiology
services incorporate transmission of ECG data, echocardiograms, heart sounds and murmurs, and cardiology images, and
can be performed in both store-and-forward and interactive
media. Teleradiology is the most widely adopted of all telemedicine
applications. Clinical radiology requires prompt, near
real-time transmission of still-frame images, but may also
demand live or full-motion video image communication and
display. Telepsychiatry allows psychiatric care to be conducted
at a distance to provide care more frequently to patients in outlying
areas.
Telemedicine applications usually encompass computer,
video, and telecommunications technologies—each with its
own role to play in the acquisition, transport, and display of
medical information. Some of the key areas related to telemedicine
include patient record management and mobile clinics.