Transforming telemedicine for rural and urban communities Telemedicine 2.0 - any doctor, any place, any time

Abstract

Providing quality healthcare in both rural and urban settings introduces many challenges. While today's Telemedicine attempts to address these challenges, the current approach is limited. This paper defines a new system architecture that leverages the network as the platform for intelligent transport and services to support high-definition videoconferencing and high-quality video and audio telemetry without the usual prohibitive cost. We describe the intelligent system components used at the end points and in the data center, and the requirements for a robust network both in the enterprise and in the service provider arenas. We contrast today's Telemedicine workflow with the workflow of Telemedicine 2.0. Finally, we offer a view of possible extensions Telemedicine 2.0 to further capitalize on the infrastructure and architecture proposed in this paper.