Telemedicines

Introduction

Telemedicine is an upcoming field in healthcare arising out of the new improvement and
innovation in information and communication technology. It has an enormous potential
because of challenges in healthcare delivery to remote areas. It may be as simple as providing
medical and technical assistance on phones and providing healthcare services through
videoconfrencing with the help of It hardware and softwares.

Definition

According to World Health Organisation, telemedicine is defined as, “The delivery of

healthcare services, where distance is a critical factor, by all healthcare professionals using
information and communication technologies for the exchange of valid information for
diagnosis, treatment and prevention of disease and injuries, research and evaluation, and for
continuing education of healthcare providers, all in the interests of advancing the health of
individuals and their communities”

Types of Telemedicines

It can be broadly classified on the basis of technology adopted and application adopted

a) Technology adopted
 Real time and synchronus : The delivery of services could be simple at real time
over telephone and complex as tele videoconfrencing and tele robotics. It requires
the presence of boh the parties and facilities at the same time.
 Store-and-forward telemedicine or Asynchronous:
It involves acquiring medical data (like medical history, images, etc) and then
transmitting this data to a doctor or medical specialist at a convenient time later
for assessment offline. It does not require the presence of both parties at the same
time. Examples are tele-pathology, tele-radiology, tele-dermatolgy.
b) Application adopted
 Tele pathology
 Tele cardiology
 Tele Radiology
  Tele Surgery
 Tele ophthalmology
Some others functions include tele- mentoring, tele-proctoring ,tele-confrencing
and tele- consultation so on and so forth.

Application of Telemedicines

 Tele-health care: It is the use of information and communication technology for

prevention, promotion and to provide health care facilities across distance. It can be
divided in the following activities.

 Teleconsultation
 Telefollow-up

 Tele-education: Tele-Education should be understood as the development of the

process of distance education (regulated or unregulated), based on the use of
information and telecommunication technologies, that make interactive, flexible and
accessible learning possible for any potential recipient.

Advantages of Telemedicines

The main objective of telemedicine is to cross the geographical barriers and provide
healthcare facilities to rural and remote areas (health for all) so it is beneficial for the
population living in isolated communities. Besides this other advantages telemedicine are:

 Eliminate distance barriers and improve access to quality health services.

 In emergency and critical care situations where moving a patient may be undesirable
and/or not feasible.
 Facilitate patients and rural practitioners’ access to specialist health services and
support
 Lessen the inconvenience and/or cost of patient transfers.
  Reduce isolation of rural practice by upgrading their knowledge through tele-
education

Companies in Telemedicine

 Rijuven India
Rijuven (India) is a Social Entrepreneur company introducing life changing SMART
TELEMEDICINE concept in India in collaboration with Rijuven (USA) with a
mission to transform and revolutionize health care through innovative medical
products that will have a world impact. This will be a quantum leap to ‘Serve the
Underserved’ and make inaccessible technology accessible at any point of care.
 Kria
KRIA Healthcare is a progressive healthcare company specializing in innovative
quality patient care, integrating physical, mental and social well-being. The focus on a
broader spectrum of health including primary medical care, mental & behavioral
health, and social health services offers a well-rounded approach for happier, healthier
patients.

A team with significant experience in providing healthcare in the last mile and
pioneering technology leveraged healthcare and pioneering emergency management
founded KRIA.

 Vidmed

India’s first Pharmacy based Telehealth company legally enabling consumers to

consult a Doctor virtually and receive medicines through Pharmacists with a valid
prescription via mail and SMS

 HD Medical

HD Medical, Inc. is a medical device research and development innovator based in

California, USA with Corporate Offices in Sydney, Australia and Research labs in
Chennai, India. Since 2005 the company has designed and developed medical products
for use in screening and early detection of cardiac conditions. Coming from a tradition
of helping to promote personal and community health, through exceptional healthcare
 diagnostic products and solutions, HD Medical, Inc. is committed to delivering
“Higher Dimensions in Healthcare”.

The company delivers its innovative diagnostic technologies and products to medical
professionals, large medical institutions and channel partners through operations in the
USA and Asia Pacific. HD Medical’s patented technologies and products offer a
paradigm shift in clinical diagnostics. With HD Medical solutions, healthcare
professionals see more patients and improve more lives.

 GlobalMed

As the worldwide leader in telemedicine and only vertically integrated provider,

GlobalMed technologies enable more than 3 million telehealth consults annually. Our
evidence-based solutions include: telemedicine stations, examination cameras,
connected medical devices, video conferencing and software that allow for connected
care and dynamic collaboration of healthcare professionals at remote locations.

GlobalMed solutions are deployed in more than 55 countries around the world.
Partnering with leading medical groups, healthcare enterprises and government
agencies has led to the company’s unparalleled expertise in designing sustainable,
integrated connected health programs that deliver best-in-class patient care.

Barriers faced by Telemedicine Sector

The following may be considered as possible downsides of telemedicine:

 Lack of direct interaction between the physician and the patient

 High cost of communication and data management equipment and its maintenance,
which may not be easy for older people living alone
 Necessity to train personnel technically to handle communication and data
management equipment
 Possibility of error when health care is delivered in the absence of a trained health
professional
 Possibility of misuse of patient data through electronic transmission
  In certain instances, time taken to provide health care through telemedicine may
actually be longer than traditional consultations because of increased time taken to
assess and treat patients through virtual interactions
 Poor quality of records or images made available to the physician at the receiving end
and omission of relevant clinical information might affect the quality of health care
delivered
 Absence of proper legal regulations for some of the telemedicine practices
 Difficulty in claiming insurance or reimbursements in certain fields.

Global Statistics and Facts on Telemedicine Services

Statistics according to the WHO region related to the four fields of telemedicine -
teleradiology, telepathology, telepsychiatry and teledermatology are mentioned below:

 Regions of Southeast Asia, Europe and Americas had the highest proportion of
established telemedicine services.
 Southeast Asia and Europe had high level of established teleradiology programs
compared to the global rate.
 African and Eastern Mediterranean had the lowest proportion of established
telemedicine services.

Additional facts on telemedicine are mentioned below:

 High income countries have a higher proportion of established telemedicine

programs, probably due to presence of well-developed information and
communication technology systems, and allocation of funds for health care.
 Store and forward initiatives are generally implemented with lesser difficulty,
compared to real time services, since they require less bandwidth for data transfer
compared to real time services requiring higher bandwidth for videoconferencing
purposes.
 Telepathology, teleradiology and teledermatology services are less bandwidth
intensive and more often employed than telepsychiatry, which requires a real time
doctor-patient interaction.
 Globally, 25 percent of countries reported having a national telemedicine policy or
strategy.
 The global revenue from the telemedicine market is expected to reach around 4.5
billion U.S. dollars by 2018.
 In a survey conducted in the US, more than 70 percent of respondents aged 18 to 44
were open to the idea of telemedical services.
 In the UK, 10.2 percent of healthcare professionals employed health information
collected via smartphones as of January 2015.
 More than half of the hospitals in the US have an established telemedicine program.
 Insurance companies in the US are required to pay for telemedicine services with
certain limitations in at least 29 states.