The Role of Management in the Transformation Healthcare System during Telemedicine Services Implementation



The Role of Management in the Transformation Healthcare System during Telemedicine

Introduction

Telemedicine has been considered a scientific discipline halfway between medicine and technology. Thus, over the last decade has been largely influenced by the continuous development of information technology and communications. The use of information technologies and telecommunication in for providing clinical health care to people living in distant locations, where immediate reach is not possible, is termed as Telemedicine. This new approach to clinical health care eradicates the distance barriers, while brining improvements to the access of medical care, whose availability is inconsistent in the remote areas. This technology is also used in cases of emergencies and critical care. Telemedicine is a remarkable application of new information technologies to improve access to specialized health care, which will transfer data (medical imaging, distance education, patient data) to the direct action of practitioner on the patient (Patterson, 2006).

Although telemedicine had a number of precursors; however, it is principally a novel invention of the 20th century information technologies and telecommunication. These technologies not only allow the medical staff and the patient to communicate with fidelity and convenience, but also enable transfer of health, imaging and medical informatics data from one location to another.

Telemedicine is found to have a wide array of benefits for people who live in far flung or isolated and in remote areas. Telemedicine has been effectively applied to every domain of the medicine. Patients living in the above mentioned areas can seek guidance can be seen by a specialist or doctor, as either of them can provide the patient a complete and an accurate assessment to the patient while he or she is at home and do not have to go through the agony of travelling or waiting as in the cases of normal GP or hospital visits.

Advanced telemedicine systems provide additional comfort not only to patients, but also to the doctors. A significant part of medical diagnosis can be carried out remotely now, with the technology that allow for much of the same research in a remote location, in the case of a personal visit to the patient's doctor. In the near future, solutions for telemedicine will become more compact and affordable to the small medical facilities and private doctors (Nelson, 2010).

Telemedicine systems allow remote transfer medical information through information technology and communication (ICT). They are intended for the exchange of information between health professionals and their patients. They are used for diagnosis, treatment and patient monitoring. Thus, these systems help to improve the quality and effectiveness of health care. Currently it is applied to health surveillance and radiology, to transfer information or electronic images.

Discussion and Analysis

According to BCC Research, the global market for telemedicine services will grow from $11.6 billion in 2011 to $27.3 billion in 2016, with the most intensive systems market will grow used to connect doctors and patients. The decision to implement telemedicine projects have already been adopted in several ...