Title: Telehealth vs. Telemedicine vs. Telecare
1Nowadays, there are several new medical terms
that an average patient may not understand. For
example, there is common misunderstanding of the
terms telecare, telemedicine and telehealth.
Most people use them interchangeably. However,
each of these words refers to a different method
of providing health care through video
conferencing technology. To clear up the
confusion, let's take a look at telehealth,
telemedicine and telecare in the following 3
parts. Part 1 Telehealth Telehealth, also
known as e-health, m-health, is a general word
referring to the delivery of health care
services, health information services and health
care education through telecommunications
technologies. Telecare and telemedicine are
encompassed within the wider scope of
telehealth. Telehealth entails preventive,
curative, and promotive aspects. It supports
remote monitoring of a patient blood pressure,
blood sugar level and electrocardiography (ECG),
health education services as well as remote
consultations (i.e. telemedicine). Through
modern telehealth technology, doctors are able to
examine, diagnose, recommend treatment and
monitor a patient's medical condition remotely.
The major benefits that telehealth provides
patients are list below. 1.They dont need to
travel a long way to see a doctor.
2- They feel safer because there is always a
professional doctor monitoring their fluctuating
health conditions. - They may visit a hospital for checkup less often.
- They would learn more about their conditions as
well as how to manage them. - Part 2 Telemedicine
- Telemedicine refers specifically to the delivery
of clinical health care services to patients via
the use of telecommunication technology. Examples
of telemedicine include video conferencing with
doctors, digital transmission of medical imaging
and remote medical examination or diagnoses. The
scope of telemedicine is much narrower than that
of telehealth.
The early forms of telemedicine were achieved
through radio and telephone, now theyve been
replaced by advanced diagnostic system supported
by distributed client-server applications and
video conferencing software. Generally,
telemedicine can be divided to asynchronous
telemedicine, remote monitoring and interactive
services.
3- Asynchronous telemedicine means convey medical
data such as bio-signals and medical images to a
doctor at a convenient time for assessment, which
does not need the presence of both parties. What
distinguishes it from in-person doctor-patient
consultation is the omission of an actual
physical examination. - Remote monitoring allows a doctor to monitor
patients remotely using technological devices.
This technique is mainly used for managing
chronic diseases and conditions, such as asthma,
heart disease and diabetes. It is extremely cost
effective.
3.Interactive services offer real-time
interactions between a patient and a doctor
by means of online communication, phone
conversations, home visits, etc. Theyre usually
applied to physical examination, history review,
ophthalmology asses sments and psychiatric
evaluations. Part 3 Telecare Telecare is
mainly used to monitor people to get real-time
emergency support via mobile phone, computer and
other telecommunication technology, which helps
to manage a wide range of issues and risks
associated with a person living alone. It also
offers families additional help with caring
responsibilities.
4- There are three main types of telecare systems
- Aid foreseeable problems. It uses signals from
sensors to analyze the severity or frequency of
monitored events. Doctors and anyone who is
concern to address the emerging issues can
access the relevant data at anytime. - Minimize the chance of problems happening. For
instance, a bed sensor can aid prevent fall by
activating a lamp when a person gets out of bed.
This is handy because a person does not have to
reach for the switch or move around in the
darknes s. - Mitigate harm. The system utilizes heat sensors,
pendant alarms, smoke detectors, bed sensors and
the like to help mitigate harm quickly. For
example, a bed sensor can activate an alarm if a
person does not return back to a bed after a
predetermined time. - Now are you clear about telehealth, telemedicine
or telecare? Whatever it is, youd always need
video conference software (ezTalks is highly
recommended here) to communicate with doctors
online. So hesitate no more and freely sign up
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telemedicine-vs.-telecare.html