Telemedicine

What is Telemedicine/Healthcare Telematics?

Telematics is the use of telecommunications technologies to solve a wide variety of problems, remotely. Healthcare Telematics or Telemedicine is the application of telematics to medicine to facilitate healthcare delivery.
Telemedicine can be defined as the investigation, monitoring and management of patients, using systems which allow ready access to expert advice and to patient information, no matter where the patient or relevant information is located.
This involves the transfer of medical information from one location to another. Increasingly, computer technology will allow much of the work currently being carried out in hospital, to be carried out in people's homes, in an effort not only to improve the efficiency and standards of patient care, but to reduce its cost drastically.
There are four main components of telematics, all of which are applicable to healthcare:

Remote database access/update
Tele-monitoring
Tele-Video Conferencing
Case Handling/Message Passing


The Benefits of Telemedicine:

Despite the initial outlay costs of investing in the computer hardware, it is anticipated that there are considerable savings to be made in the long term, by decentralising patient care and moving it from the hospital to the local or even the European community. Remote patients who would not otherwise have received speedy treatment can be dealt with easily, and medical data can be transferred instantaneously, saving time and energy.
In short, Telemedicine improves the mobility of patient care, and assists the access to all kinds of medical information. The patient gets improved treatment, and scarce resources are used more efficiently, securing the reputation of Healthcare Telematics as the future of medicine.