A Brief Introduction to What Is Telehealth

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The existence of telehealth can be dated back to
the 1960s, but this niche has only recently
become widely popular. Among the first
applications of telehealth, it has been the
monitoring of the astronauts physiological
parameters. Due to technological advancement, a
number of communications and technological tools
have been implemented over the years in order to
enable an easy transfer of patient information,
consultations and recommendations across the
specialties and the medical environment.
W hat Is Telehealth?
In order to understand telehealth definition, it
must be understood that this is a not a specific
service, but it rather encompasses a broad
variety of technologies meant to deliver virtual
education, health, and medical services.
Telehealth is the collection of technologies
that are able to provide consumer health
communication, remote monitoring of the patient,
as well as medical education and information for
healthcare providers. This collection of means
to enhance health education and care delivery has
recently become very trendy. Practitioners,
policy makers and the public aim to find the best
ways to apply telehealth and its components.
Difference Between Telehealth and Telemedicine
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• In understanding what is telehealth, it should be
  made a distinction between telehealth
• and telemedicine. Telehealth and telemedicine are
  two different fields that play different roles
  in healthcare organizations. While telehealth is
  commonly used to describe a wide
• range of education, management, diagnosis and
  other related health care fields, telemedicine
  is referring to traditional monitoring and
  clinical diagnosis delivered at a distance by
  technology.
• Telehealth includes different services such as
• Home health
• Counseling
• Dentistry
• Occupational and physical therapy
• Disaster management
• Chronic disease management and monitoring
• Professional and consumer education

Telehealth Modalities and Market

• Overall, telehealth services cover four distinct
  application domains
• Live video this telehealth service provides
  live, two-way interaction between a caregiver or
  a person and a health care provider by using
  technology for audiovisual telecommunications
  such the web communication solution provided by
  ezTalks. This service type may serve as a
  substitute for an in-person encounter and it is
  also referred to as real-time. Live video
  telehealth service can be used both for
  consultative and diagnostic as well as treatment
  services. In many circumstances, this can be a
  real life saving technology.
• Store-and-forward the telehealth service
  consists in the transmission of recorded health
  history to a practitioner through a secure
  electronic communications system. The specialist
  typically uses the information in order to render
  a service outside the live or real-time
  interaction or to evaluate the case. This service
  involves communication tools like secure email
  and provides access to the data after it has been
  collec ted. Even when

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• the board-certified specialists are limited in a
  certain community, store and forward
• technology can help access specialty care.
• Remote patient monitoring this telehealth
  service consists in the collection of medical
  and personal health data from an individual via
  technologies for electronic communication. Data
  collected is then remotely transmitted to a
  provider in a different location for use in
  various health care services and related support.
  The remote patient monitoring type of service
  allows providers to track healthcare data even
  after a patient has been released to a care
  facility or home. This way the readmission rates
  are reduced. Remote patient monitoring can help
  individuals remain in their community and home,
  reducing the need to physically visit the health
  care providers office.
• Mobile health this is a telehealth service that
  provides public care practice, health care, and
  education via mobile communication devices such
  as computers, tablets, cell phones, and PDAs.
  Mobile health applications range from wide scale
  alerts about disease outbreaks to targeted text
  messages that promote healthy behavior.

Conclusion
Telehealth has become one of the most common
terms used nowadays. However, not many people
know the exact meaning of the term. Telehealth is
a term that represents the exchange and transfer
of medical information between different
telehealth software providers in various
locations. Telehealth is about transmission of
patients consultations through still images,
patient portals, video conferencing, monitoring
and remote control of vital signs, nursing call
centers, patient-focused wireless applications,
continuing medical education, and many other
applications. https//www.eztalks.com/healthcare/
a-brief-introduction-to-what-is-telehealth.html