FEATURE TELEHEALTH 025
RuRal health pRovision via telehealth adoption
By: Prof. Dr. Adam Chee, Chief Advocate of binaryHealthCare, Singapore
Internet), is fast gaining adoption due to the capabilities in providing healthcare services to both patients and providers with no easy or direct access; this includes remote, rural areas as well as patients with mobility difficulties. Unlike its predecessor – Telemedicine – Telehealth covers a bigger
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profile by encompassing preventive, diagnosis and curative facets of healthcare. This paradigm shift in thinking and adoption enables the delivery of a sustainable care of patients in a 24x7 manner, across the healthcare system - enabling enhanced care delivery. Implementation of telehealth can be as simple as two health professionals discussing a medical case over IP telephony or physicians
y virtues of being a cost effective and practical method for healthcare delivery, telehealth, or the delivery of health- related services and information via telecommunications technologies (such as the GSM, 3G networks or the
Primary care refers to the work of healthcare professionals who act as a first point of consultation for all patients within the healthcare system. Primary care involves the widest scope of healthcare Secondary care refers to healthcare services provided by health professionals who generally do not have first contact with patients (specialists) Tertiary care is specialized consultative healthcare, usually for inpatients that are referred by from a primary or secondary health professional. Tertiary care usually occurs in facilities with advanced medical equipment and specialists Long-term care is a variety of health services, which help meet both the medical and non-medical need of people with a chronic illness or disability who cannot care for themselves for extended periods of time As you can deduce from the descriptions above, the application of telehealth in the different segment of healthcare differs as the patient
"how should you go about identifying your actual workflow requirements?"
using email to communicate with patients, or even usage of video conferencing between providers at facilities in two countries, it can also be as complex as telesurgery (surgery performed remotely via surgical robots). It is precisely this ‘fuzziness’ that confuses would be adopters of this telehealth, causing unnecessary confusion that ‘clouds the solution’.
THE SECRET LIES IN WORKFLOW The secret in identifying the underlying requirements for your telehealth project lies in uncovering your actual workflow, this is because no two telehealth projects are the same. Even if the clinical discipline is the same, the objectives and health delivery methods might be different. So how should you go about identifying your actual workflow requirements?
DETERMINE THE HEALTHCARE SEGMENT The provision of healthcare differs according to the type of healthcare services being sought and this will influence how you will want to adopt telehealth for healthcare services delivery. The most common classification of healthcare would be;
contact differs according to type of healthcare services being provided.
DETERMINE YOUR LEVEL OF URGENCY In telehealth there are two fundamental ways to transfer your medical data from point A to B: Real-time (synchronous)
IN SHORT
Telehealth is delivery of health-related services and information via telecommunications technologies, such as the GSM, 3G networks or the Internet The application of telehealth in different healthcare segments differs as the patient contact changes according to the type of healthcare services provided When implementing telehealth, review your operation and business requirements as they are at the moment and what you’re planning to do in the future to get a system that both applies to you now and can be expanded.
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