...................................................... Keynote presentation Q Telemedicine support for the developing world Richard Wootton Centre for Online Health, University of Queensland, Australia Summary Telemedicine has been used for some years in the industrialized world, albeit with rather mixed success. There is also a considerable literature on the potential use of telemedicine for the developing world. However, there are few reports of the actual use of telemedicine there. A review identified five telemedicine networks providing second opinions; each network had been in operation for over five years. Although they have different aims and methods of operation, they exhibit some common features. In particular, none of them appear to be dealing with markedly increasing referral rates. Rough calculations suggest that only about 0.1% of the potential telemedicine demand from the developing world is being met. Possible reasons include the referrers being too busy and a perceived loss of control. If this analysis is correct, then the right strategy for future telemedicine in developing countries will be to concentrate on the construction of within-country networks that demonstrably alter health outcomes, can be shown to be cost-effective and sustainable, and will provide a model for other countries to copy. .............................................................. Telemedicine has been used in the industrialized world for some years, albeit with rather patchy...
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...Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences - 2000 Investigation of Factors Affecting Healthcare Organization’s Adoption of Telemedicine Technology Paul Jen-Hwa Hu University of South Florida Patrick Y.K. Chau University of Hong Kong Olivia R. Liu Sheng University of Arizona Abstract Recent advances in information and biomedicine technology have significantly increased the technical feasibility, clinical viability and economic affordability of telemedicine-assisted service collaboration and delivery. The ultimate success of telemedicine in an adopting organization requires the organization’s proper addressing both technological and managerial challenges. Based on Tornatzky and Fleischer’s framework, we developed and empirically evaluated a research model for healthcare organizations’ adoption of telemedicine technology, using a survey study that involved public healthcare organizations in Hong Kong. Results of our exploratory study suggested that the research model exhibited reasonable significance and classification accuracy and that collective attitude of medical staff and perceived service risks were the two most significant factors in organizational adoption of telemedicine technology. Furthermore, several implications for telemedicine management emerged from our study and are discussed as well 1. Introduction Telemedicine is essentially about use of information and biomedicine technology to support, facilitate or improve collaboration and delivery of healthcare...
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...amazing thing and at this time the growth of the industry is unprecedented thanks to the innovation of forward thinkers. Through the use of the cloud, smart phones, and telemedicine the public is going to be able to have a real time active part in their health. With the innovations now and on the horizon patients will be able to benefit in ways that they have never before. Through the course of this paper the benefits from the technological advances will be discussed in reference to the cloud, smart phones and telemedicine. Welcome the cloud A slowly emerging trend in health care today is the use of "the cloud". According to Goodwill Community Foundation International (n.d.) the most basic definition for "the cloud", which is when "your computer communicates with a network of servers. Some of the servers are specialized for storage, while others use their computing power to run applications". Technology companies are using the cloud to provide large banks of secure data storage, develop applications for health care, and provide secure transmission of data. This growth has caught the attention of health care providers and now those providers are starting to be the biggest customers. Health care providers are starting to look at the cloud as a source for secure e-mail communications, data storage, and telemedicine. The advantages of the cloud are numerous, but there are a couple of main reasons the cloud is going to be a staple in health care facilities in the United States. ...
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...Telemedicine Introduction According to the American Telemedicine Association, telemedicine has become a world leading innovative strategy for providing quality health care to patients via the exchange of medical services using communication technology (Siegal, 2012). This exchange of medical information has brought the accessibility to health care to many patient in which otherwise would not have the required resources to access many health care services. In many scenarios, telemedicine has bridged the gap between the need of specialized medical technology at one specific location and an individual’s medical diagnosis at another. Hospitals and other health care providers, which service rural areas of the country, now have an avenue of approach when dealing with accessibility of patients, especially the aging population in these areas. Telemedicine has provided the way of accessing technology and reaching out to a new strategy of practical medicine. In this research we will discuss many of the value added approaches of telemedicine and how it has affected the change in healthcare. There are three main areas of focus that will be considered. As stated, we will discuss and assess the technology currently being used to provide telemedicine services. This technology is broad and can cover vast amounts of information, but the focus will be to explain the main contributors of telemedicine technology and the adoption of this technology by providers. The first part of emphasis...
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... Dan M. Shane, PhD, and Marcia M. Ward, PhD (2017), “telemedicine has been proposed as one strategy to improve local trauma care and decrease disparities between rural and urban trauma outcomes.” (p.1.) This study focused on an emergency room’s use of telemedicine in North Dakota. The type of telemedicine device used in the study was “a high-resolution video camera, microphone, and television [that] are installed in the trauma bay of the rural hospital, and a button on the wall initiates immediate consultation with providers in the hub.” (p.2) On this device you could also arrange an inter-hospital transfer. According to Nicholas M. Mohr et. al. (2017), the results and conclusions of this study are as follows. There were 7,500 trauma patients seen in an emergency room. Of those patients, “telemedicine was consulted for 11% of patients in telemedicine-capable EDs and 4% of total trauma patients.” (p.1) The use of telemedicine by itself was “associated with decreased initial ED length of stay for transferred patients.” (p.1) Telemedicine being available was attributed to an increase in transfers between hospitals. This is important because if one hospital is not equipped to help someone, they can quickly get them somewhere else. Refer to Figure 1 in...
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...op yo rP os t NA0186 A Telemedicine Opportunity or a Distraction? Janis L. Gogan, Bentley University Monica J. Garfield, Bentley University S hawn Farrell, Executive Director of the Partners TeleStroke program, glanced at his smart phone while striding toward his office at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) in Boston; he nearly collided with Lee Schwamm, MD. Knowing that Dr. Schwamm’s overfull schedule as Vice Chairman of Neurology and Director of Acute Stroke and TeleStroke Services meant he had little time to chat, Farrell used the near-collision as an opportunity to quickly mention a recent conversation with a nurse from Falmouth Hospital on Cape Cod. An active participant in the TeleStroke service, Falmouth Hospital was regularly honored for its adherence to best practices in stroke care. “Recently some Falmouth nurses asked how we can convince other MGH departments—such as in critical-care pediatrics—to provide similar telemedicine consultation services,” Farrell stated, adding “Their nurse stroke coordinator, Jean Estes, is a huge cheerleader for TeleStroke.” Dr. Schwamm continued moving toward his office as he replied, No tC Shawn, don’t we already have too much to do? I need to see patients, complete the analysis for a study I am working on, submit a grant application. Next week I will speak at an international neurology conference. Telemedicine can certainly be invaluable in many clinical domains, but there just are not enough...
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...BRIEF COMMUNICATION Clinical Telehealth Across the Disciplines: Lessons Learned Sandra Jarvis-Selinger, Ph.D.,1,2 Elmira Chan, M.Ed.,2 Ryan Payne, B.A.,2 Kerenza Plohman, LLM,2 and Kendall Ho, M.D., FRCPSC2,3 cost and remuneration issues, development of organizational protocols for system use, and strategies to promote interprofessional collaboration). 1 Department of Surgery, 2Division of Continuing Professional Development and Knowledge Translation, 3Division of Emergency Medicine, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada. Key words: clinical telehealth, videoconferencing, literature review, quality of service Introduction Abstract Videoconferencing technologies can vastly expand the reach of healthcare practitioners by providing patients (particularly those in rural/remote areas) with unprecedented access to services. While this represents a fundamental shift in the way that healthcare professionals care for their patients, very little is known about the impact of these technologies on clinical workflow practices and interprofessional collaboration. In order to better understand this, we have conducted a focused literature review, with the aim of providing policymakers, administrators, and healthcare professionals with an evidence-based foundation for decision-making. A total of 397 articles focused on videoconferencing in clinical contexts were retrieved, with 225 used to produce this literature review. Literature in the fields...
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...Introduction Rapidly changing medical technology and availability of high technology diagnostic and therapeutic equipment together with changing practice pattern of doctors has revolutionized the way health care is being delivered today. Without doubt, medical technology is indispensable for people's health and better quality of life in some areas; and contributes billions of dollars to the economy. Some would go so far to say that the practice of medicine these days is inherently dependent upon health technology. This is probably based on the observations that clinicians use a wide variety of technologies in diagnosing, treating and assessing the care of their patients. Today's medical technology is more advanced, more effective, and in many cases, more costly than ever before. Furthermore there is an ever increasing demand for high technology diagnostic and therapeutic health care facilities and their availability may come into conflict with medical necessity, social justice and cost effectiveness. There is increasing pressure on health care resources that is driving more explicit and public decisions regarding the best use of these resources. The complexity of modern technology and its high marginal cost suggest to us that testimonial reviews of new technologies are no longer sufficient.1 Current trends in health care decision making favour a transition from a rationale based primarily on resources and opinion to a rationale derived from research. In developing a new health care...
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... and to maintain a register of those counselors. The NBCC has established certain regulations that its members should adhere to regarding Online Therapy. The NBCC categorizes this as “Distance Professional Services”. National Certified Counselors, NCC, means that you will abide by a Code of Ethics. Among these include qualifications for the services provided, local, state and federal regulations, use of encryption and disclosure of potential hazards of distance communications. The use of encrypted digital backup, detailed progress updates, the possibility for system failure and prevention of distributing confidential information to unauthorized individuals are also included in the NBCC’s policies. According to The American Telemedicine Association who is the leading international resource and advocate promoting the use of advanced remote...
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...eHealth Global Development 1. Introduction Telemedicine as a health care approach was fundamentally born during the 'space race' between the USA and the former USSR. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the USA military and USA government funded the first telemedicine projects. NASA was keen on building a distant monitoring system to manage the health of American astronauts in space (Sullivan, 2001). Today, due to the technological advancements of communication, several applications and internet based software are already developed to provide health care access to those living in remote areas. Before reviewing the literature related to the recent developments of e-health, it is important to clarify the definition of telemedicine....
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...Telemedicine: An Important Force in the Transformation of Healthcare 1. Introduction As we enter the new decade, healthcare for an aging population is a top-of-mind issue for government policy makers, business leaders and consumers alike. Healthcare costs have been steadily increasing, and a growing number of healthcare providers and patients worry that the recent budget crunches faced by healthcare providers will affect patient care in the years ahead. Healthcare providers are taking advantage of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) stimulus funding to launch telehealth initiatives to face down some of healthcare’s most daunting challenges. According to the American Telemedicine Association: "Telemedicine is the use of medical information exchanged from one site to another via electronic communications to improve patients' health status. Closely associated with telemedicine is the term 'telehealth,' which is often used to encompass a broader definition of remote health care that does not always involve clinical services. Videoconferencing, transmission of still images, e-health including patient portals, remote monitoring of vital signs, continuing medical education and nursing call centers are all considered part of telemedicine and telehealth." Following decades of media attention focused on the potential for telemedicine to transform health care delivery, the technology has matured, as has the acceptance of its use among providers and payers. ...
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... They are displayed case by case rather than nursing home protocol. Even with changes in regulations, reporting systems, and documentation over the past couple of years, the nursing home industry still has its share of problems. Patient safety is meant to provide patients freedom from healthcare associated preventable harm, meaning when things go right, nothing bad happens. Nursing home organizations have been constantly trying to improve their reputation and the way people view them, but how? Don’t patients make up a nursing home? What about their safety? Shouldn’t we start there? How do we make improvements? Telehealth, a new approach to improving patient safety in nursing homes, will use telecommunication technologies to deliver health related services and information that support patient care, administrative activities, and health education (Dixon, Hook, McGowan, 2008). In this paper I will explore the major benefits of Telehealth and how its implications can improve patient safety in nursing home care. What is Telehealth and why is it important? Telehealth is the means and methods to improving access to care and reducing healthcare associated costs. It is also a system that can be used for education purposes, to keep physicians and medical staff in the know on healthcare changes and updates; in which combined together are the steps to improving patient safety in nursing home facilities. It is an expansion of telemedicine, and unlike telemedicine, (which focuses just...
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...Health Care Health care industry have experienced and still experiencing increase in advancement of technology, there have been advancement in patients’ treatment, deliver of quality care, and hospital equipment. Through advanced technologies, health care boundaries have been push to enhanced integration of health care information. Health care information integration has been critical to the effectiveness of fragmentation of health care system. How Internet or any new forms of electronic communication can be used as an external delivery source in communicating patient-specific information and the impact of distance delivery on health care will be evaluate in this paper. Also consideration will be given to the use of e-mail, telemedicine, and electronic transfer of records and assessment of how these issues affect health care today and how they may impact health care five years from now will be discusses in this paper. Assessment of Internet and how it may be used in communicating patient specific information externally Internet service was used by U.S. Defense Department and researchers initially, but presently, Internet is available also to health care providers and patients enabling them to have access to worldwide library health care resources and patient specific health information. There have been an increases in the popularity in utilizing Internet and other forms of electronic communication as means of delivering patients’ information externally...
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...own different set of legal and compliance challenges, particularly in the area of privacy and security. This paper will analyze needs and recommend ways in creating a remote monitoring program for patients with heart failure with information to how to implement it throughout the organization. What is Telemonitoring? Key information technology application domains in health care include telemedicine and home telecare. On the one hand, telemedicine is defined as the direct provision of clinical care, including diagnosing, treating, or consultation, via telecommunications for a patient at a distant (Wainwright &Wootton, 2003). Remote monitoring, or telemonitoring, can be regarded as a subdivision of telemedicine, which is the use of electronic and telecommunications technologies to provide and support health care when distance separates the participants (Nangalia, Prytherch, & Smith, 2010). According to the Phillips National Study on Home Care Technology and Telehealth, co-sponsored by NAHC and conducted by Fazzi Associates, only 17.1% of U.S. agencies currently use telehealth. However, the study found that this number is expected to double within the next two years (Kelly & Christians, 2012). Telemonitoring includes the use of remote monitoring...
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...care. So what is telenursing and telehealth? Hebda & Czar (2013), states that “telenursing is the use of telecommunications and information technology (IT) for the delivery of nursing care”. Telehealth is “the use of telecommunications technologies and electronic information to exchange healthcare information and to provide and support services such as long-distance clinical healthcare to clients”. Although, telenursing is still a fairly new concept to me, there is documentation of telenursing in the 1970’s. The first published telenursing article was written by Mary Quinn, RN in 1974. She described seeing patients remotely at Logan airport while working in a Boston Hospital telemedicine Center. (American Telemedicine Association, 2011). Fast forward to today and telehealth, telemedicine, and telenursing are common words used in healthcare. Medicine has been evolving for centuries and for quite some time technology has been revolutionizing healthcare. Telenursing is not...
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