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Telemedicine Is Not A New Concept

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Telemedicine The term telemedicine is formally defined as “the use of medical information exchanged from one site to another via electronic communications to improve a patient’s clinical health status” (ATA, 2012). In the 1900s, due to the invention of the telephone and various other avenues of communication, telemedicine medicine was introduced to the world. Throughout the years, varying degrees of advances in telemedicine have been acknowledged but telemedicine truly began receiving recognition in the seventies with the introduction of the personal computer (Ferrer-Roca and Sosa-Iudicissa, 2002). While telemedicine is not a new concept, is has begun to receive more and more recognition due to the advances in technology.
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The biggest implication of telemedicine is that rural patients and hospitals can obtain better access to specialty care services. In turn, this could lead to earlier diagnoses and treatment which can contribute to improved outcomes and less costly treatment. Those individuals, who do not have access to care, are unable to leave their homes, or miss work to see their physicians, would be able to take advantage of telemedicine services.
While Telemedicine is a broad category and can include various tools and indications, the methods in which Telemedicine is communicated between providers and patients has specific methods of application. The most popular methods of utilizing telemedicine are store-and-forward, remote monitoring and interactive services. These methods are explained in more detail below (Center for Connected Health Policy, 2014):
• Store-and-forward telemedicine involves transmitting medical data to a provider or medical specialist through a secure method of communication. Data most often sent through this method of transmission are X-rays, MRIs, photos, pathology reports, patient data, etc. This method of telemedicine more often than not uses an electronic format as the component to transfer patient information between providers.
• Remote monitoring enables medical professionals to monitor a

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