“From faster wireless networks to mobile imaging applications to biosensors, the technologies for delivering telemedicine services are certainly there,” said Dr. Yongmin Kim, IEEE Fellow and professor of bioengineering and electrical engineering at the University of Washington. “But advancing telemedicine through technology innovation alone is not enough. We now need to make it easier for the healthcare providers to embrace and apply these technologies in diverse medical environments.”
Read more: Experts say telemedicine held back by deployments
But there’s a caveat. Widespread use of telemedicine will only happen if technologists and clinicians work together to ensure it can be used everywhere in the world, the story says. Towards this end, the IEEE will hold two conferences in Boston later this year.
Telemedicine is an extension of eHealth defined as the use of new and emerging technology to enhance health and health care.1) Two other frequently used terms associated with telemedicine are telecare and telemonitoring, the latter representing distant monitoring of patients in their home environment. Telemedicine represents an exciting shift in the delivery of health care, a shift that will transition patient care from the physician's office or clinic into the patient's home. On a regional level, it will allow urban providers to reach rural areas. Specific to COPD, telemedicine within the last decade has demonstrated its ability to reduce emergency department visits and hospitalizations and to detect early the exacerbation of COPD.2)
IEEE Working to Foster Collaboration between Technologists and Clinicians to Ensure Real-World Success of Telemedicine Applications
Telemedicine is technologically ready to meet the growing demand for access to health services in developing nations and remote areas around the world, say experts from IEEE, the world's largest professional technical association. However, widespread use of telemedicine will require greater collaboration between technologists and clinicians to ensure it delivers on its promises in the real world – millions more people reached, with measurably better outcomes for those patients.
With healthcare moving towards embracing IT in a better way, areas such as medical imaging and electronic health record systems are set to boost bandwidth as well as data storage capacity requirements for the healthcare industry in India as well as globally.