Telemedicine's Advantages For Remote Areas
Remote Medicine Using New Technology Can Save Money and Lives
Nov 13, 2009 Elizabeth Kelleher
In the last two decades, telemedicine and the use of non-traditional methods of diagnosis and treatment have become a significant trend in healthcare. Advances in technology and especially the spread of the internet are allowing care providers to reach patients in ways that were not possible before.
Remote Health Care May Rely On Many Different Technologies
Telemedicine can take many different forms, from phone calls to fully integrated health tools with connections to the internet to transmit data asynchronously or in real time. These different approaches can be uniquely tailored to the particular needs of an area and provide significant cost savings to health care organizations, regions, states and countries around the world.
Rural And Remote Areas Are Prime Candidates For Efficient Use of Telemedicine
One of the primary areas where telemedicine is most useful and can provide an immediate impact on not only costs, but quality of care, is in rural areas where care facilities and care providers, especially specialists are spread far and wide. Telemedicine has been proven to be very effective in certain trials, allowing local basic care providers to tap into the knowledge of specialists remotely, using different types of systems.
Alaska, Upstate New York and Vermont In the United States Provide Real Case Studies Of Effective Telemedicine
Alaska, upstate New York and rural Vermont are three places in the United States where remote medicine has been effectively used to treat patients at a distance, reducing transportation costs and with a high rate of successful diagnosis and treatment. In Alaska a program was developed to distribute telemedicine carts with remote diagnosis tools to local clinics and treatment centers, using low-bandwidth asynchronous internet connections due to the lack of infrastructure for high-speed connections in the state, per Harler in an October 2006 Business Communications Review article titled "Telemedicine: Alaska net shows how narrow you can go".
AFHCAN telemedicine carts in the state's program pay for themselves the very first time that a patient is able to be diagnosed remotely instead of requiring an emergency flight to another facility, since the cost of a single cart, which can be used to diagnose multiple cases is roughly the same as a single emergency medical flight to an urban treatment center.
Harler also states that outcomes for some patients are better via telemedicine than they are in person, citing statistics of 87% accuracy of diagnosis by standard means and 93% accuracy of diagnosis by telemedicine. Alaska’s program has been so successful that various branches of the U.S. military, Native American tribes, other states and other countries such as Russia are evaluating the system for implementation as well, says Harler.
Likewise, according to Caputo, Heath, Hertzig, Hopkins, and Salerno in their 2009 article, "Pediatric critical care telemedicine in rural underserved emergency departments" in Pediatric Critical Care Review, a program to provide remote pediatric specialist diagnosis in upstate New York and rural Vermont had high rates of accurate diagnosis and treatment and an overall strong success rate though using higher-end technology including high-speed, dedicated connections.
This program allowed specialists to advise local general or emergency practitioners and reduced incidences of serious problems and mortality especially in the areas of respiratory illnesses in children without having to transport the patients to a more advanced facility for diagnosis and treatment, Caputo et. al. conclude.
Korean Study Bears Out Conclusions of Experiences In United States
In Korea, per Park &Yun's 2007 article "Strategy development for the implementation of telenursing in Korea" in CIN : Computers, Informatics, Nursing, chronic disease management, geriatric care, emergency care, maternity and pediatric nursing were all areas that could benefit from the application of telenursing. Park & Yun state that two different studies in Korea, conclude that, “… from an ideal point of view, telenursing would target the low-income residents of rural areas who do not have ready access to medical facilities."
These conclusions support the evidence from the three situations in the United States cited above that rural, remote and underserved areas can benefit from telemedicine to provide quality health care.
Telemedicine Can Be Highly Cost-Effective, Safe Method To Treat Patients In Remote Areas
As these examples have shown, while the industry is not rushing to embrace telemedicine, it is having an impact on the market as successful systems are tried, evaluated and bring positive outcomes to light.
While complete end-to-end telemedicine may not come to pass any time soon, targeted, specialty care where current and upcoming technology supports accurate diagnoses certainly seems to be gaining traction in the industry and will likely continue to spread as concepts are proven and more health care organizations, state, federal and international governments adopt successful systems and best practices as demonstrated through various trial projects.
References
Caputo, M., Heath B., Hertzig, J., Hopkins A., Salerno R., (2009). Pediatric critical care telemedicine in rural underserved emergency departments. Pediatric Critical Care Medicine, 10 (5), 1-4.
Harler, C. (2006, October). Telemedicine: Alaska net shows how narrow you can go. Business Communications Review, 54-57.
Park, H.A. & Yun, E.K., (2007, Sept./Oct.). Strategy development for the implementation of telenursing in Korea. CIN: Computers, Informatics, Nursing, 301-306.
Read more about reducing health care costs:
Computer Networking
|
What do you think about this article?
More in Technology
Latest Articles