In the past, doctors and specialists were not connected to patients through telemedicine for providing virtual health and medicine. In rural areas, where experts in medical fields were not able to reach or be present at, telemedicine proved a great benefit. As the years passed, the explosive use of the internet brought profound changes to telemedicine practices. The escalation of smart devices with the capability of delivering high quality video and audio raised the possibilities of delivering remote healthcare. Telehealth care helps patients at home or at assisted living facilities as a revolutionary alternative to personal visits for both basic as well as expert care. Applying deep data analytics to telemedicine will create new horizons in telehealth by analyzing large data sets of patients using live video streaming to predict the health challenges of patients.
TopIntroduction
The merging of technological applications with health called Telehealth. The face of health care is totally changing as it was in earlier days. The need for merging technology with health is rising day by day. The popularity of Telehealth is increasing rapidly and accepted in large part. In cluster of health care Telemedicine and Telehealth used interchangeably (Priyanka & Kulennavar, 2014).
Telemedicine is defined as an application of tools, techniques and technology in medicine so that people can take advantage from it from any part of the world and round the clock, where as Telehealth is having a wider scope related to many techniques and approaches to deliver clinical services, enhancing knowledge and know how about health and medicine.
Telehealth is adopted worldwide and to be used by all disciplines related to health. Below are many health disciplines where Telehealth has been widely accepted shown in Figure 1.
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Dentistry
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Counseling
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Physical therapy
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Home health, etc.
Figure 1. Disciplines accepted Telehealth
To educate medical professionals and stack holders, Telehealth changes the era from transforming the scene from activities related to diagnostic used in traditional era regarding monitoring health of patient.
The delivering mode which helps in delivering health care services and public health with the use of information and communication technologies to pursue below services as shown in Fig 2.
Figure 2. Services provided by Telehealth
In this scenario the patient is at their own location and the health service provider is at other remote location.
The National Business Group on Health is providing Telehealth services are provided to their employees. But by 2019 the number will increase by ninety seven percent.
In India the population with old age are increasing day by day, population is increasing, less doctor to patient ratio. There is hard need of medical experts to cure chronic diseases. The cost to health diagnosis is also increasing day by day. The innovation in technology is constantly improving and patient care systems is improving day by day to assist the system from isolated locations.
The facts shows that Telemedicine hits will capture in billions by 2021.The visualization of these figures are shown in Figure 3.
Figure 3. Market potential of Telehealth by 2021
Goals Telehealth
The goals of Telehealth, also called e-health or m-health (mobile health) which includes the following:
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Accessibility of health solutions to patients living in remote areas.
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The people having less mobility to travel and less options for transportation, Telehealth is a boon for them.
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A very convenient access medical specialists.
With the help of Telehealth services there is improvement in communication and coordination between team of healthcare providers and health care seekers. Telehealth support self health management.