Telemedicine, the Future of Health Care
The term telemedicine is derived from the combination of a Greek word Tele, meaning distance and a Latin word mederi meaning to heal. Distance is a constraint for people living in remote areas to access timely, good-quality health care. Telemedicine attempts to overcome this constraint by bridging this gap between the patient and healthcare provider. The World Health Organization defines Telemedicine 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 the continuing education of healthcare providers, all in the interests of advancing the health of individuals and their communities. For example a patient or a health care provider, or caregiver may use a wireless phone to automatically upload vital signs and send it to a remote monitoring center. Telemedicine was one of the initial technologies which improved the spread of healthcare services wherein areas that were considered inaccessible initially were also able to access healthcare facilities.
Benefits of Telemedicine
read moreTwenty Five Years Into The Future and Barbie
Twenty five years ago in 1985, pop industry artists in the US joined together to help the starving in Africa with the song We Are The World. Governments around the world began screening for AIDS. TWA Flight 847 was hijacked by Hezbollah. EgyptAir Flight 648 was hijacked and ended in 56 dead passengers during the rescue by commandos. British scientists discovered a hole in the ozone layer. In Mexico City more than 9,000 people were killed in an earthquake rated 8.1 on the Richter scale. The first.Com domain was registered and version 1.0 of Windows was introduced. CD’s (Compact Discs) were introduced to the American consumers. The first Mobile Phone Call was made by Ernie Wise in the UK. And Barbie dolls surpassed in number the American population (The People History1985, 2009).
So where will we be in 25 years from now Well, some say the future lies in the past. So what’s been changing over the last 25 years Today we don’t see much change in terrorism. The Oklahoma City bombing, 911, and plenty of other bombings continue to fill newspaper headlines. Earthquakes – Haiti has just had its own version of Mexico City’s 1985 earthquake. AIDS – Still here (as long as people have sex I presume). The ozone layer – Al Gore claims we are succeeding in ozone protection and the hole over Antarctica is estimated to close by the year 2050 (AL Gore on Environment). So what can we expect to change One thing sure to change is technology.
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