Y-Axis Foundation Blog

What is Telemedicine?

Telemedicine, a term coined in the 1970’s which literally means “healing at a distance”.

Telemedicine allows healthcare professionals to evaluate, diagnose and treat patients at a distance using telecommunication technology.

Differences between Telehealth and Telemedicine.

Telehealth:

• A public health application that alerts the public of a disease outbreak
• A video-conferencing platform for medical education

Telemedicine:

• A mobile application that lets physicians treat their patients remotely via video-chat. For example, a software solution that lets primary care providers send patient photos of a rash or mole to a dermatologist at another location for quick diagnosis.

Types of Telemedicine:

There are three main types of telemedicine,

• Include store-and-forward: Data such as medical images or bio signals can be sent to the specialist as needed when it has been acquired from the patient. This practice is common in the medical fields of dermatology, radiology and pathology
• Remote monitoring: Also known as self-monitoring or self-testing, remote monitoring uses a range of technological devices to monitor health and clinical signs of a patient remotely.
• Real-time interactive services: Interactive services can provide immediate advice to patients who require medical attention. There are several different mediums utilized for this purpose, including phone, online and home visits by technicians.

Each of these has a beneficial role to play in overall health care and, when utilized properly, and can offer tangible benefits for both healthcare workers and patients.

Benefits:

• Convenience
• Saves money
• Saves time

 Telemedicine’s medical specialities:

• Teleradiology
• Telepsychiatry
• Tele dermatology
• Teleophthalmology
• Tele nephrology
• Telepathology
• Tele oncology
• Telerehabilitation
• Tele obstetrics

All types of primary and specialty care and mental health services can be provided via telemedicine.

Orientation to Telemedicine is given in many universities such as:

1. Columbia University
2. Oklahoma State University
3. Southern Illinois University
4. Arizona State University
5. University of Utah