The evolution and transformation of telemedicine

Telemedicine history goes back to the nineteenth century. According to this history, this phrase was introduced with one of the first reports published in the twentieth century,4 at which time electrocardiography data was transmitted over telephone wires.5 Commercial equipment for the development of telemedicine in the 1960s was used by the military and space technology departments as well as private individuals.6 The use of TV to facilitate relationship between specialists at a psychiatric institute and general practitioners at a state mental hospital,7 and providing medical advice from a major teaching hospital to an airport medical center can be noted as some examples of early technological milestones in telemedicine.8 Many parameters have been described as drivers of telemedicine over the past decade, the biggest ones include recent advancements in, and increasing availability and utilization of, ICTs by the general population, rapidly creating new possibilities for health care service and delivery. Developing countries and disadvantaged areas of industrialized nations follows this.9 The use of telemedicine among health-care providers has been increased due to the replacement of analogue forms of communication with digital methods, combined with a rapid drop in the cost of ICTs. These have made health care organizations enable to imagine as a future possibility and use new and more efficient methods of providing care. The speed of the advancement of communication and information technology has increased with the introduction of the Internet, after which the telemedicine domain has expanded into web based applications and multimedia approaches. The creation of a tapestry rich in telemedicine programs is the result of these advances that can be used in various parts of the world.