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Video
Conferencing and Telemedicine
Video conferencing and telemedicine tackle today's healthcare challenges
May 12, 2006
By: Alice Osborn
Knowledge is transferred and interactivity is encouraged
when video conferencing in the medical field is applied to
today's healthcare challenges. In fact, video conferencing
and telemedicine work together to ensure that long-distance
patients receive quick and accurate diagnoses and
consultations no matter how far away the doctor is from the
patient. When video conferencing is used with telemedicine,
physicians receive cost-effective continuing medical
education, rural patients receive advanced care from
teaching hospitals, and patients with chronic conditions
receive the latest health information.
Telemedicine: past, present and future
The beginnings of telemedicine emerged in the early 1900s
when physicians communicated with remote patients in
Australia and Canada through two-way radios. By the 1960s,
NASA was developing telemedicine for the space program
through audio transmissions and later through satellite
communication. In the late 1980s, telemedicine emerged when
ISDN lines allowed interactive and real-time video
conferencing.
The growth of the Internet helped Doctors Without Borders
communicate with local doctors and their patients via e-mail
in third world countries. The improved technology also
assisted WorldClinic, a global telemedicine practice, to
give e-mail diagnoses and treatments to scientists working
in remote locations or to single-handed sailors sailing
around the world. In recent years, telemedicine has grown
substantially due to web and streaming media conferencing
that transfers medical information to the participating
physicians in real-time.
The future of telemedicine will
involve the still-developing telesurgery field, which uses a
robotic arm to perform the surgery, aided by 3-D images from
the surgery site. Most likely in the future, an aging and
computer-savvy generation will turn to telemedicine to
answer questions about their chronic medical conditions, and
they will demand more comprehensive patient education.
Applications for telemedicine
Video conferencing delivers
rapid knowledge to physicians, either to save lives or to
gain additional medical training. This interactive tool is
cost-effective measure since telemedicine decreases the
doctor's need to travel, and in a teaching forum, it
increases the ratio of students to the teaching physician,
which gives more knowledge opportunities to more medical
students than through traditional teaching.
Telemedicine can
be deployed to patients through real-time video conferencing
or through an offline consultation, called store-and
forward-imaging. The best solution would be to use both
methods so that a physician has the data, images and video
before she gives a diagnosis. Telemedicine when coupled with
video conferencing is a breakthrough knowledge sharing
endeavor that has practical applications for medical staff
training, remote site work, and patient education.
- Distance learning and training applications -- Video
conferencing enables medical teaching staff to demonstrate
techniques and skills to medical students or to doctors
renewing their medical license. Breakthroughs in the medical
field are reviewed and discussed in an environment that
shares knowledge and builds interactivity.
- Remote site work -- Telehealth solutions can provide
medical treatments and techniques for remote populations
either living in North Dakota, Costa Rica, or in remote
parts of the world. Physicians from large teaching hospitals
or medical centers can connect with their remote patients
using video conferencing equipment, such as
Polycom's
MedLink Cart, which delivers video, audio, and data sharing
capabilities on a mobile workspace. As the conferencing
physicians work on these cases and interact with the local
physicians, the medical knowledge increases, so that more
patients can be successfully treated and their health
improved.
- Advanced knowledge sharing techniques -- Physicians who
practice out of large medical centers on both coasts use
telehealth video conferencing solutions to share healthcare
information with physicians working in other areas of the
country. For example, Johns Hopkins doctors in Baltimore,
Maryland give lectures on cardiology, oncology, and diabetes
to physicians around the world.
- Patient education -- Through video conferencing, the
patients with chronic conditions can have their questions
answered and be given more extensive medical knowledge via
this interactive technology. Sometimes these patients may be
seeking a second opinion from a large medical center, or
they may be searching for a telehealth solution to explore
other treatment options.
Although the telemedicine field has succeeded at greater
knowledge transference and interactivity among physicians,
medical students, and patients, this field has more room for
expansion. By increasing the awareness of telehealth
solutions and through patient success stories, video
conferencing technologies for telemedicine will become more
compact and innovative and will be able to reach more people
in more places.
About the Author
Alice Osborn is a successful freelance writer and
contributor to Video-Conferencing-Guide.com. Your definitive guide to everything you need to know about video driven communications, including multi-view video conferencing solutions for business, broadband video phones and personal webcam chat rooms.
Also See: [
Classroom video conferencing to enhance distance education
courses ]
[ The future of
video conferencing among businesses and individuals ]
[
Applications of video conferencing technology for work, home
& school ]
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[ Video-Conferencing-Guide.com ]
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