Towards gestalt telehealth: considering social, ethical and cultural issues

Telehealth is a flexible way of working which covers a wide range of health-related activities and often involves remote-working from a traditional healthcare centre for a significant proportion of work time. Contemporary medical-related IT techniques, such as telehealth, have specific properties that cannot be derived from the summation of their component parts (demonstrating a gestalt or unified whole). Implementation of telehealth schemes has major social, ethical and organizational culture implications upon which this paper focuses. Developments in IT, social and ethical considerations, governmental policies and commercial objectives need to be examined and understood in order to fully exploit any benefits. Whilst this research further supports earlier conclusions about the suitability of conceptual models for IT-based implementations, further evidence will be required before constructing a conceptual framework.