What is telemedicine?Telemedicine is a rapidly developing application of clinical medicine where medical information is transferred through interactive audiovisual media for the purpose of consulting, and sometimes remote medical procedures or examinations.
Evolution
1. 1964:U.S. National Institute for Mental Health (NMH), the Nebraska Psychiatric Institute began using a two-way closed-circuit TV link between the Institute itself and Norfolk State Hospital about 112 miles away
2. 1971: The U.S. National Library of Medicine's Lister Hill National Center for Biomedical Communication chose 26 sites in Alaska to verify the reliability of telemedicine via satellite communications.
3. 1972: NASA began trial runs of its Space Technology Applied to Rural Papago Advanced Health Care (STARPAHC) program for telemedical help for people living in remote locations with little or no medical services
4. 1972: The Health Care Technology Division of the U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare (HEW) funded seven telemedicine research and demonstration projects
5. 1977:Canada's Memorial University of Newfoundland participated in a Canadian Space Program for distance education and medical care, using the joint Canadian/U.S. Hermes satellite.
6. 1984: The North-West Telemedicine project was set up in Australia to pilot test the Australia government's Q-Network satellite communications network.
7. 1989:After a massive earthquake hit the Soviet Republic of Armenia, the U.S. offered the Soviet Union, under the auspices of the U.S./U.S.S.R. Joint Working Group on Space Biology, use of a one-way international telemedicine network for consultations between Yerevan, Armenia, and four medical centers in the U.S. The Space Bridge program was later extended to Ufa, Russia.
Advantages
1. Make specialty care more accessible to underserved rural and urban populations
2. Beneficial for people living in isolated communities and remote regions
3. Useful as a communication tool between a general practitioner and a specialist
available at a remote location
Disadvantages
1. Lack of face to face consultations
2. Lack of appropriate telecommunications technology
3. Lack of federal funds
