The Optimal TeleHealth Solution for Remote Sites

Abstract

The technological advance in Telemedicine; we see a flood of Telecommunication equipment into the market; utilizing less bandwidth and jump in data transfer speed; and miniaturizing of POC (Point of Care) Diagnostic and Treatment Equipment. Each day, more Telemedicine equipment is entering the market and companies are enticed by the "latest and savvy’ Telemedicine equipment with heavenly promises. Companies that think that they require Telemedicine would then grab these new technologies when they enter the market without a systematic review of what is their requirement and what fits their requirement. Once the purchase order has been done and equipment delivered to the site; issues like registration of the equipment with the Country Ministry of Health and in some cases endorsement of international standards; e.g. FDA or OSHA compliance, inter-operability with other equipment and data security may be raised with no answers. Latest expensive technology may be great but it may not fit the requirement and the operating scenario of the user. This paper looks into a simple way of stratification of Telemedicine for remote health and also the factors that need to be considered before adopting of any new Telemedicine equipment.