The term telemedicine is derived from the combination of a Greek word "Tele," meaning "distance" along with a Latin word "mederi" meaning "to heal". Distance is usually a constraint for people living in remote places to access timely, good-quality health care. Telemedicine attempts to overcome this constraint by bridging this gap in between the patient and healthcare provider. The World Health Organization defines Telemedicine as, "The delivery of healthcare services, where distance is a important aspect, by all healthcare professionals applying data and communication technologies for the exchange of valid data for diagnosis, remedy and prevention of disease and injuries, research and evaluation, and for the continuing education of healthcare providers, all in the interests of advancing the health of people and their communities". One example is a patient or maybe a health care provider, or caregiver might use a wireless phone to automatically upload very important signs and send it to a remote monitoring center. Telemedicine was one on the initial technologies which improved the spread of healthcare services wherein locations that were deemed inaccessible initially had been also capable to access healthcare facilities. Get extra data about telemedicine in toronto
Added benefits of Telemedicine
Telemedicine improves accessibility to health care facilities for the patient living in remote areas and allows physicians to reach out to individuals and expand their services beyond their very own clinic. Telemedicine reduces travelling time for each patient and also the health care provider. It also decreases the number of hospital stays, makes it possible for for shared health specialist staffing that translates into decreased health care expense. In addition to the reduction in travel time in addition, it reduces the stress associated with traveling. It improves continuity of patient care as the patient, primary care doctor, specialist and family members could be actively involved throughout a consultation.
Challenges of Telemedicine
Physicians might not be conscious with the benefits or utility of telemedicine and could possibly be resistant to utilize such e-medicine technologies. Creating trust in sufferers regarding the outcome of those newer technologies is a further challenge. Language may very well be a barrier in some countries. For instance only 65.38% of India's population is literate with only 2% being well-versed in English.
In the hospital point of view, implementation of telemedicine involves investment of high capital linked with all the technologies and communication and so this may perhaps turn into financially unfeasible. Telemedicine is supported by numerous varieties of computer software and hardware is still immature and needs to evolve.
Conclusion
Telemedicine will be the answer for the query of solving the issue of inaccessibility towards the healthcare facilities. With correct implementation it could serve various purposes along with the fundamental or specialized healthcare services. Current advances in the field of facts technology has improved the high-quality with the telemedicine services and also reduced the associated costs to a great extent. However, issues about security of patient information, or becoming entirely dependent on such services are getting raised in relation to telemedicine. Nevertheless, judicious use of this health technologies can save a lot more lives than just before and lower the healthcare fees to a great extent.