There are many new medical tech terms being used today that the average patient may not be familiar with. For example, a common misunderstanding is that the terms telemedicine, telecare, and telehealth are interchangeable. The truth is that each of these terms refers to a different way of administering health care via existing technologies or a different area of medical technology. To clarify the subtle differences between these three terms, we have provided a detailed definition of each.
Telehealth
what is Telehealth? Referring to health information services,
health care education, and health care services in a broad sense, the term telehealth is an all-encompassing one. In fact, telecare and telemedicine are generally covered within the broader scope of the term telehealth. Examples of telehealth includes health education services, remote monitoring of vital signs, ECG or blood pressure and remote doctor-patient consultations (telemedicine). Telehealth technology enables the remote diagnoses and evaluation of patients in addition to the ability to remote detection of fluctuations in the medical condition of the patient at home so that the medications or the specific therapy can be altered accordingly. It also allows for e-prescribe medications and remotely prescribed treatments.
Telecare
Telecare is the term that relates to technology that enables patients to maintain their independence and safety while remaining in their own homes. This technology includes mobile monitoring devices, medical alert systems, and telecommunications technology like computers and telephones. Continuous remote monitoring of patients enables telecare to track lifestyle changes over time as well as receiving alerts relating to real-time emergencies.
Telemedicine
What is telemedicine? This term has a narrower scope than that of telehealth. It refers more specifically to education over a distance and the provision of health care services through the use of telecommunications technology. Telemedicine refers to the use of information technologies and electronic communications to provide remote clinical services to patients. The digital transmission of medical imaging, remote medical diagnosis and evaluations, and video consultations with specialists are all examples of telemedicine.
What is Telehealth Services?
One of the most common terms today are telemedicine and telehealth. However, very few people seem to understand the meaning of what these fields entail as well as the roles that they play in a person’s healthcare organization.
Telehealth Meaning
So, what is telehealth? What does telehealth mean and what are telehealth services?
In layman’s language, telemedicine and telehealth are terms that represent the transfer and exchange of medical information between different sites. From the American Telemedicine Association’s point of view; telemedicine, as well as telehealth, are defined by transmission of still images, patient’s consultations through video conferencing, patient portals, remote control and monitoring of vital signs, continuing medical education, patient-focused wireless applications and nursing call centers and many other applications.
Telehealth’s existence can be dated from the 1960’s with one of the earliest applications being the monitoring of the physiological parameters of astronauts. Over the years, thanks to technological advancement, there has been a number of technological and communications tools that have been implemented to enable the transfer of patient’s information for recommendations and consultations across almost every medical environment and specialty. Telehealth services for patients have also been able to provide remote monitoring of the patient, consumer health communication and information and medical education for providers. Typically, delivery techniques include: networked programs that link tertiary medical centers to outlying centers and clinics in rural areas, home phone-video connections, point-to-point connection to hospitals and clinics, web-based e-health service pages and home monitoring links.
However, for a while, adopting and investing in telehealth services had been too high, and the distribution of telehealth resolutions and hospital-based networks proved to be too costly. But now, due to technological improvement, improved broadband services are now powerful and easily affordable which makes the level of return on investment in telehealth higher than ever before. Across almost all medical specialties, telehealth services can be applied in connecting providers with different patients in different locations via real-time audio and video. In other cases, service centers can use telemedicine to collect remotely as well as send data to a central monitoring system for interpretation.
It is common for outlying healthcare facilities to transfer unnecessarily or forced to refer patients to complex cases that are beyond the knowledge-base of the local providers. Patients are therefore frequently transported over long distances to get direct care or for specialist’s telehealth consultation. These referrals and transfers can be quite costly for the patient since they present clinical, operational and financial challenges to all the parties that are involved. Telemedicine can curb such issues, reduce the frequency of travel and deliver considerable efficiencies and returns for all parties involved.
Thanks to telemedicine programs, hospitals, clinics and all other health facilities can ensure that patients receive the best care possible when that care is in their hometown or even hundred of miles away. So what is telehealth’s role in this? It can play a major role in addressing some of the upcoming challenges for healthcare in the United States. For instance, the population growth from 2008-2030 is set at 20%, that is 363 million people, which is predicted to bring about a shortage of healthcare professionals and the lack of specialists and medical facilities in rural areas. Additionally, there is an expected increase in chronic diseases such as diabetes, congestive heart failure, and obstructive pulmonary disease. Statistics indicates that almost 5 million patients are admitted to the intensive care unit that accounts for 20% of the hospital’s operating budgets. Telemedicine can reduce the impact of such challenges by connecting the right people with the correct resources and expertise in real-time.
Telehealth definition
Over the years, telehealth has been shown to increase access to healthcare and to improve efficiency. As technology has improved and become easier to use, telehealth is becoming an accepted part of healthcare delivery.
As it becomes an integrated part of healthcare systems around the world, it’s important for the medic to understand the role telehealth plays in healthcare and how the medic effectively utilize telehealth to improve healthcare delivery.
What is telehealth? Is it diagnosing a patient over the phone? Is it posting a case question to an online medical forum? Is texting health advice via mobile device telehealth?
Digital and mobile technology have drastically changed and continues to change, the way we interact with each other and the ways we deliver healthcare.
With all these different modalities, it’s important to be clear about what modality we are discussing and which modalities are most appropriate for which situations, especially as it pertains to regulatory issues.
This is a very broad definition of telehealth which highlights two key characteristics of telehealth:
· It is conducted when the provider and the patient are in geographically disparate locations
· It is conducted via some kind of technology
It’s important to note that telehealth is not a speciality or a type of medicine such as cardiology, family medicine, or nursing, etc. Rather it is a technological conduit or a mode of delivering healthcare. Thus you could do a cardiology consult or a general medical consult or any kind of healthcare education using telehealth.
Telehealth Terminology
With the consumerization of broadband technology and the development of mobile devices, a mishmash of telehealth or related digital health services have developed over the years: telehealth, e-health, e-medicine, e-care, mHealth, remote medicine, remote healthcare, remote patient monitoring (RPM), etc.
Just like telehealth, the definitions of many of these terms are different and evolving depending on where you are and who you consult. Perhaps one of the more confusing of these is telemedicine.
