Telemedicine : Health Care Delivery

It excludes the option of face-to-face communication during examinations. Finally, telehealth focuses on educational and research purposes involving all types of caregivers with telecommunication between patient and health professionals. Health care delivery in its use of information, records, communication, and will continue to grow with the Internet. The rapid expansion of information technology into daily life and business has healthcare delivery begin to adopt and optimize the use of technology.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss how technology has impacted the health care delivery system. Health care technology is advancing at an increasingly rapid rate in the United States, and globally. Patients and providers are witnessing these changes through the use of telehealth, and telemedicine applications. Telehealth, and telemedicine are often used interchangeably, however there is a difference between the two applications. Telehealth is the use of technology to deliver health care, health information, or health education at a distance (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, n.d.).

The benefits of telehealth consultations are immeasurable; clients are able to access a knowledgeable health care professional and receive a telephone triage/assessment and recommendations. This allows the patient to have immediate access to good health advice and quicker solutions. Telemedicine is one of the many vehicles of telehealth; for example, the cardiologist orders an outpatient Holter Monitor trial to evaluate arrhythmias. The technician calls the patient at the sign of any abnormal rhythm and investigate the activity performed when the reading fluctuation then the reported is communicated to the cardiologist. If warranted, the cardiology staff will contact the patient with instructions schedule an immediate appointment. Telehealth services resources would benefit the client in this next example, an individual’s come in for a sick visit expecting a prescription to be written for their illness; they receive informative instructions because of the nature of the

What is telemedicine? According to the American Telemedicine Association, “Formally defined, telemedicine is the use of medical information exchanged from one site to another via electronic communications to improve a patient’s clinical health status. Telemedicine includes a growing variety of applications and services using two-way video, email, smart phones, wireless tools and other forms of telecommunications technology.” They

Telehealth Introduction Telehealth is the use of technology for the exchange of health information in a two way communication from one location to another using a variety of tools or applications. Tools and applications such as smart phone devices, video conferencing, emails, and other wireless applications are used for the convenience and improvement of delivery of healthcare. It has the advantage of connecting healthcare personnel and primary care provider with patients and provides knowledge through the network system regarding patient care and monitoring (Katzman, 2013). Telehealth is a cost effective way for the Advanced Nurse Practitioners (ANP) to have the ability to reach a wider geographical area and broader populations.

Telehealth services refers to the exchange of health information and services through telecommunication services in order to support anyone, at any time, in any location. Telehealth systems allows doctors to be in one place and treat patients in rural or urban areas – such as their homes or any another providers premises. The technology behind such concept is particularly helpful for patients with trouble leaving the house, or that live in remote areas from specialists (Narisi, 2013)

“Telehealth changes the location of care by connecting patients and clinicians virtually, in place of the usual face-to-face contact.” (Darkins 2012).

Telehealth is the use of electronic information to support long distance clinical health care, patient education, and public health administration. Telehealth involves video conferences, internet, streaming media, and wireless communication to deliver health related services. It encompasses the preventative, promotive, and curative aspects of health care. This system exchanges health related data and other information between the patient and the health care professional to help with the diagnosis and management of conditions. It allows for conferencing between health care professionals and patients in “real time”, remote patient monitoring (such as the blood pressure monitor feeding results through the system), electronic consultation, transmission of medical data, health advice in emergency cases, and long distance patient education. Telehealth is great for monitoring a client in between doctor appointments in order to assess their progression. This benefits the clients because it reduces the need for hospitalizations and visits to the emergency room, while improving their quality of life.

The delivery of health care has always been influenced by technological developments and innovations. This is particularly true in modern health care professionals where they are obsessed with technology and rush to apply them. One of the most recent applications of ICT – Information and computer technology- is telehealth. Telehealth is the use of communication, diagnostic and information technology to provide health care when patients and providers are geographically separated [2], Technologies include videoconferencing, the internet, store -and-forward imaging, streaming media, terrestrial and wireless communications. Telehealth could be as simple as two health professionals discussing a case over the telephone or as

Telemedicine is similar to Telehealth. Telehealth refers to a broader scope of remote healthcare service but Telemedicine refers specifically to remote clinical services. Telehealth can also refer to remote non-clinical services. For example provider training and meetings (link 3). In the past the network is not as fast as now, thus telemedicine is only use in clinical services. Now, due to the development of network, more information can be transferred in a shorter period, thus Telemedicine can be to provide other non-clinical services. The word “Telehealth” refers to both clinical and non-clinical services.

Often the biggest barriers to accessing healthcare are cost and location. Lower income individuals just do not have the resources to have optimal healthcare, or cannot take the time away from employment to deal with health issues. One potential solution to help with these problems could be “telehealth.” Telehealth allows a lower level healthcare practitioner to communicate with a physician or specialists when necessary. Remote rural areas use a Physician Assistant or a Nurse Practitioner on location in remote areas.

Tradition: Practicing medicine is finding a course to diagnose a disease from an illness (discomfort) with invasive procedure (testing or experimenting) to use drug for a treatment that will cause a sickness for (reduce health). Practicing medicine for primary care is the use of drug for pharmaceutical development. Therefore, there is potential for harm in practicing medicine by exposure to toxins and drugs

There are several forms of technology that is used to monitor, assist patients with self-care management, assist physicians with delivering care to their patients, including consultation with specialist, and overcoming barriers with transportation. “60% of the healthcare executives, physicians, and nurses in this inaugural survey said that telemedicine was a high priority for 2015“ (Vockley, 2015, para. 7) Telemedicine

Telemedicine is the practice of medicine in relation to clinical care where medical information is transferred through technological means for the purpose of consulting or conducting medical examinations and procedures from two different locations. Technological means can be as uncomplicated as a phone call between two specialists or more complex with the use of satellite technology to enable equipment for video conferencing, transmission of images and monitoring of vital signs. There is a distinction between telemedicine and telehealth, telehealth is a broader term that does not always refer to clinical services but may also include patient portals, continuing medical education, and nursing call centers.

Telemedicine is the use telecommunications and information technology to provide healthcare to patients located in the remote or distant locations. For example: people staying in the mountainous areas or islands can get medical services right at their home with the help of smart devices or patients who cannot go to the hospital for some reason.