Many people will wonder what telemedicine actually means and how it works. The term ‘telemedicine’ refers to the system where medical advice and treatment is delivered to patients from a distance. Tele means ‘far’ and is a Greek word. This may be a simple scenario of two or more medical experts discussing a particular case over the telephone or it could be as complicated as two surgeons discussing a surgery over a teleconference system while the surgery is actually taking place in an operation theatre. There is no limit to the distance between the professionals as long as they are connected through a network of computers they may be located at any two points in the globe. Telemedicine can also involve the use of unmanned robots delivering medical files and information to medical professionals anywhere through the network.
Telemedicine is the use of communications technology to access the clinical data of patients and the delivery of medical treatment to them. This is also referred to by many hospitals and institutions as ‘care at a distance’. This is nothing new to the world of medicine. In years gone by the system was catered to by the general post and was a bit slow, however, today teeth the advancement of telecommunications in the field of Internet technology and telephone systems telemedicine has become a daily used term. African villagers were known to use smoke signals to warn visitors to stay away from villages in times of contagious diseases spreading through the area. This was a type of telemedicine, along with asking the medicine men, whom may have traveled to a distant village to return to the village in the case of an emergency. It was the same with Australians who communicated with the ‘Flying Doctors’ through two way radio when they needed assistance in the remote parts of the country.
There is real time telemedicine that is as simple as a telephone call to your family doctor or complex telemedicine that involves surgery by robots. Telemedicine requires both the parties to be present through a communications link established through reliable forms of networking that is under control of the parties at all times. The internet may not be such a good idea for telemedicine, especially with online surgery, as the connectivity is in the hands of a third party. People performing the surgery must have control of the communication link to prevent it from being switched off or broken. Video-conferencing equipment is one of the most common forms of technologies used in synchronous telemedicine. There are also peripheral devices which can be attached to computers or the video-conferencing equipment which can aid in an interactive examination. For instance, a tele-otoscope allows a remote physician to ’see’ inside a patient’s ear; a tele-stethoscope allows the consulting remote physician to hear the patient’s heartbeat. Medical specialties conducive to this kind of consultation include psychiatry, internal medicine, rehabilitation, cardiology, pediatrics, obstetrics and gynecology and neurology.
Telemedicine as we know it today may have sounded like something out of a science fiction film a few years ago. However, it is a reality that has saved many lives.
Shakir A. is writer an independent writer on Internet marketing, Online Video Advertising, Video Conferencing and it’s happenings in Internet industry. More Details for Video Conferencing at http://www.tandberg.com
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