Telemedicine (medicine at a distance) is an innovative form of providing medical services and health care, combining elements of telecommunication, IT and medicine. As a result of using new technologies, it enables geographical barriers to be overcome, making it possible to exchange specialist information by sending static as well as dynamic pictures (sending highest-quality ECG, USG and MRI pictures). This enables a diagnosis to be made at a distance.
The beginnings of telemedicine, going back to the end of the 1950s, are connected with the military and conquering space. Already when the dog Laika was sent into orbit in November 1957, details were sent to Earth about its health. Later, astronauts’ health details were monitored at a distance. The first TV transmissions of radiological tests were carried out. When telecommunication satellites appeared, it became possible to send both data from areas affected by natural disasters and to consult difficult cases with leading medical centres.
In Poland, initiatives to disseminate telemedicine focus mainly on developing and implementing systems for sending ECG signals by telephone (including by mobile phones), on sending X-ray photos, USG and CT images efficiently via the Intranet or Internet for consultation purposes, and also on the efficient organisation of databases and necessary systems for controlling access to those information banks. Diagnosing and monitoring the health of patients at home, heart sufferers, diabetics and asthma sufferers have already been practised for a long time. The advantages of such uses are reaped by both sides: by doctors monitoring their patients’ health on an ongoing basis, thereby reducing the financial costs of maintaining medical units; and by patients gaining in comfort from better-quality services combined with the convenience of being anywhere (not necessarily in a hospital ward).
The advantages of telemedicine include:
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