By this point, you must be familiar with the concept of telemedicine. But what exactly is the procedure for the delivery of telemedicine systems? What are the technologies used to establish digital connections between doctors in metropolitan hospitals and patients living in distant, rural locations? Given the widespread proliferation of the internet, the methods for the delivery of telemedicine have undergone a change.
Now, all patients in rural areas need is a basic internet connection, and they can use it to avail at least some of the benefits of telemedicine. These are some of the types of connections that are used for telemedicine.
Networked Programs
The prime purpose of networked connections – such as high-speed internet lines – is to link small health centers in distant, rural locations with central hospitals in urban areas. As per the ATA, there are currently close to 200 networked programs for telemedicine in the United States, which provide over 3000 rural locations access to telemedicine.
Point-to-point Connections
Point-to-point connections use the high-speed internet to establish links between small clinics in remote locations and one large hospital. Telemedicine connections of this sort allow clinics that are small or dealing with a shortage of staff to outsource cases to medical care providers based in other facilities within the system. Point-to-point connections are used particularly for teleradiology, telepsychiatry, and cases requiring urgent care.
Monitoring Center Links
Monitoring center links are utilized exclusively for a single kind of telemedicine, i.e. remote patient monitoring. A digital connection is established between a patient’s home and a medical monitoring facility in a distant location. This connection allows for the measuring of patients’ medical data while they are at home, and the data is then electronically transferred to a medical facility in a distant location. Links of this sort are usually formed via internet, telephone, or SMS connections, and they are generally used for monitoring the data of cardiac, pulmonary, or fetal cases.