Teleradiology: IT-Based Co-operation and Networking in Public Health

Abstract

In most countries of the world, public health is an important indicator for the prosperity of a society. However, due to increasing deficits in public households, more and more conflicts arise between new medical approaches and traditional medicine, between technology-centered and human-centered care, and between increasing demands of patients (societies) and limited, sometimes even decreasing healthcare budgets. In this context, telecommunication-based medicine (telemedicine for short) provides for economies of scale, for sharing of investments, for speeding up clinical and healthcare business processes, for bridging geographical distances and, last but not least, for fundamentally re-designing, and innovating diagnostic, administrative, therapeutic and nursing processes (Hammer, 1993; Berger, 1997). Telemedicine-networks can only be established and operated efficiently • if all relevant information and objects are in digital form (providing for a dematerialization of healthcare processes!) • if high-speed networks are available with acceptable bandwidth, • if the telemedicine-software can be integrated with the administrative and clinical systems of healthcare institutions, and • if the clinical and administrative processes of healthcare institutions are adapted to the challenges of telemedicine.