The Needs Analysis Of Telemedicine

The rural population is at great risk for poor physical, mental, and social health illness. Compared to the urban communities, there is a lack of equality in health care allocation due to a lack of resources, finances, and focus in the rural population. They are “more likely to report poor or fair health, having diabetes, having chronic disease, being obese, not engaging in health protective behaviors, and experiencing cost as a barrier to initiating or maintaining health care” (Teufel, Goffinet, Land, &

Telehealth is defined as a form of conferencing that connects patients and health professionals through technology, providing an array of services such as diagnosis and assessment, medication management and individual therapy (L'Abate, 2015). Telehealth is associated with many advantages such as including improved accessibility, flexibility relating to personalisation and reduced costs (L'Abate, 2015). However, the effectiveness of telehealth has become more prominent in recent years in its ability to successfully provide basic health care to those who have restricted access to health services, thus offering new opportunities of individuals to meet health standards, increasing their health status. In Australia, those in rural and remote geographical

In 2014 the average American spent $9,596 on healthcare, up significantly from $7,700 in 2007 and there are estimates that costs will continue to rise, even expecting to pass $10,000 per person in 2016.1 In the past decade, “the leading causes of death in the world have shifted from acute and infectious disease to chronic and degenerative diseases”. 2 In rural America, there are about 10 percent of practicing physicians, despite one-fifth of the US population that lives in these areas.3 One solution to these problems is telehealth. Telehealth, which includes telemedicine and telehomecare, integrates electronic information and telecommunication technology to provide health care and health education over distances, such as in rural areas or from a patient’s home if they are not able to travel.

What is telehealth? Telehealth is the information and communication technology which delivers health services over distances. This information includes Internet or web-based ‘e-health’ and video-based applications which can be delivered in real-time or store-and-forward mode. Telehealth is unique and has the capability to cross geographical, temporal, political, social and cultural barriers within the health sector. Telemedicine is often used interchangeably with telehealth, however the term telemedicine generally implies a physician mediated interaction with patients.”[2]

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.

With the world becoming increasingly focused on global health there are elements that must be addressed in order to effectively analyze a healthcare system. There are instances in which healthcare systems are influenced by both domestic policy as well as international policy. The Millennium Development Goals (MDG) is an international development agenda agreed upon by 189 countries worldwide focused on addressing the most urgent global development (Skolnik, 2012). By agreeing to this agenda, countries will strive to reach improved measures of health outcomes. One area which would provide the greatest benefit is in addressing health disparity in the least economically developed regions of the world. The establishment of such goals will ensure that countries who are affected by health disparity have the appropriate forum from which they can address these issues from. Data collected from said health outcomes can help to identify if countries are on track to meet these established goals. The information may also prove valuable in highlighting inefficiencies within the system of care could impact both cost of care and patient outcomes (Skolnik, 2012).

“There is a strong association between lower levels of health and lower socioeconomic status” (Bradshaw, 2008). “A large proportion of the population is unable to afford or access nutrient dense food, sanitation, health care services, clean water and as a result, the poor health of the individuals living in poverty stricken areas is driven by the unequal distribution of resources in the healthcare system.”

What is telemedicine ? telemedicine is the use of medical information exchanged from one site to another, via electronic communications, to improve a patient's clinical health status . Some benefits of telemedicine are 1) improved access ,2) cost efficiency , 3)improved quality, and 4)patient demand . patients can access telemedicine through their doctors , a hospital, or other health care provider . Some may even tell you the health care services that are already available. Telemedicine is it safe ? or not ? yes ! it is guided by technical standards and guidelines, although some people rethink who really benefits from telemedicine . The patient or the doctor ? well both patients and healthcare providers originated from larger cities or in

Achieving UHC in LMICs is an immense challenge due to various social, cultural, political, environmental and economic factors; many of these factors are exactly what kept these countries in a low- and middle-income status to begin with. While Rwanda and Thailand’s drive toward UHC has shown incredible promise and success as I will describe in this paper, their processes were quite different, demonstrating that UHC is not a cut and paste process. Each approach must ultimately reflect that country’s unique history, culture and legacy from existing health systems.

The tropical country of Vietnam is located in the south eastern Asia and is a prime location to study the impacts of significant health issues and their effect on the individuals of these communities. Vietnam is located on the Indochinese peninsula and is bordered by China to the north, Laos and Cambodia to the west and the South China Sea to the east and west. The country has a sizeable population of almost 93.5 million people as of 2015. Additionally, Vietnam has average life expectancies of males and females at 71 and 81 respectively. Despite its neighbors, Vietnam has a relatively poor Gross Domestic Product per capita of only 1910 United States dollars, and is classified as a middle income country by the World Bank. It has received this classification because Vietnam’s Gross National Income per capita of $2013 is greater than $1045 but less than $12736. By being a middle income country and less developed than a high income country, Vietnam is already more susceptible to many additional health issues.

>At present, the telemedicine is limited because the physicians cannot touch patients directly or provide any hand-on medical care, like as giving injections. Even these speculations may seem to belong in realm of the science fiction, and most advanced technology should make these speculations a reality in future. And that type of technology is currently being explored and, One day, this technology may make remote surgery a real one. And It will be well spread and widely used throughout the

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.

Worldwide, approximately 1.3 billion people do not have access to affordable and efficient healthcare and out of those who have access, almost 170 million are forced to spend around 40 % of their income on medical treatment (Asante et al,2016).In low and middle income countries (LMICs), the major constraint to the access of healthcare is financial burden, where out-of-pocket payments (OPP) contribute to approximately 50 % of total health expenditure (WHO, 2010). As a result, in these countries there is high probability of many households being pushed into poverty due to high medical expenses (McIntyre,2006).The matter of concern in LMICS is that poor and disadvantaged groups of population do not have access to adequate quality of healthcare.For instance, according to WHO (2010) up to 20 % of women in rich population are more likely to have a birth attended by skilled health worker than a poor woman. Therefore, taking an action to address health inequities faced in these countries would save up to 700,000 women.

Healthcare, especially in developing countries, is an important part of everyday life. People are treated for illnesses each and every day in healthcare facilities around the world. Inadequate healthcare, on the other hand, is one problem that people seeking medical treatment should not have to face. “More than 200 million children worldwide under age 5 do not get basic health care, leading to nearly 10 million deaths annually from treatable ailments like diarrhea and pneumonia...Nearly all of the deaths occur in the developing world...according to Save the Children's global report” (qtd. in 10 Million Children). Citizens of developing countries need to be able to access stable medical practices that will help reduce the potential for widespread disease. While inadequate healthcare is not a new issue in the world, sufficient healthcare, for developing countries, should be a focus of developed countries.

health care for rural areas. Affordability consist of the cost towards health care. With new technologies arising, many patients rely on it. However, there is not much access to telemedicine due to the high cost. Accessibility includes the lack of doctors and supplies provided as well as the distance traveled to their health care provider. Although healthcare is still accessible, the hassle to travel long distances just for a checkup is a bit of an inconvenience. Thus, resulting in more cases of chronic diseases in rural areas.