Telemedicine and E-Health Law has the answers that health care providers, hospitals, pharmaceutical companies, insurers and their legal counsel need as medicine enters a new era.
"This book provide a comprehensive coverage of the latest and most relevant knowledge, developments, solutions, and practical applications, related to e-Health, this new field of knowledge able to transform the way we live and deliver services, both from the technological and social perspectives"--Provided by publisher.
Telemedicineâ€"the use of information and telecommunications technologies to provide and support health care when distance separates the participantsâ€"is receiving increasing attention not only in remote areas where health care access is troublesome but also in urban and suburban locations. Yet the benefits and costs of this blend of medicine and digital technologies must be better demonstrated before today's cautious decision-makers invest significant funds in its development. Telemedicine presents a framework for evaluating patient care applications of telemedicine. The book identifies managerial, technical, policy, legal, and human factors that must be taken into account in evaluating a telemedicine program. The committee reviews previous efforts to establish evaluation frameworks and reports on results from several completed studies of image transmission, consulting from remote locations, and other telemedicine programs. The committee also examines basic elements of an evaluation and considers relevant issues of quality, accessibility, and cost of health care. Telemedicine will be of immediate interest to anyone with interest in the clinical application of telemedicine.
Digital Pathology: Historical Perspectives, Current Concepts & Future Applications provides the authoritative text in the digital pathology domain by combining the established expertise of leaders in this diverse arena with practical applications of this transformative platform while harnessing a content rich, interactive format. In detailing a cohesive narrative from a broad, global perspective the lessons learned from the past, the obstacles to digital pathology adoption that have been overcome and the challenges that remain for full realization of the potential that computational analysis affords, this text provides readers with the latest in where the field is heading as it seeks to unlock the potential of digital pathology by leveraging cutting edge technologies and innovative tools. Digital Pathology: Historical Perspectives, Current Concepts & Future Applications will be of great value to Pathologists including Translational Researchers and Informaticists, Pathology Trainees including Residents and Informatics Fellows, Healthcare CMIOs and CIOs, Bioimaging Engineers and Computer Vision Scientists, as well as Laboratory Information Technologists.
In 1996, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) released its report Telemedicine: A Guide to Assessing Telecommunications for Health Care. In that report, the IOM Committee on Evaluating Clinical Applications of Telemedicine found telemedicine is similar in most respects to other technologies for which better evidence of effectiveness is also being demanded. Telemedicine, however, has some special characteristics-shared with information technologies generally-that warrant particular notice from evaluators and decision makers. Since that time, attention to telehealth has continued to grow in both the public and private sectors. Peer-reviewed journals and professional societies are devoted to telehealth, the federal government provides grant funding to promote the use of telehealth, and the private technology industry continues to develop new applications for telehealth. However, barriers remain to the use of telehealth modalities, including issues related to reimbursement, licensure, workforce, and costs. Also, some areas of telehealth have developed a stronger evidence base than others. The Health Resources and Service Administration (HRSA) sponsored the IOM in holding a workshop in Washington, DC, on August 8-9 2012, to examine how the use of telehealth technology can fit into the U.S. health care system. HRSA asked the IOM to focus on the potential for telehealth to serve geographically isolated individuals and extend the reach of scarce resources while also emphasizing the quality and value in the delivery of health care services. This workshop summary discusses the evolution of telehealth since 1996, including the increasing role of the private sector, policies that have promoted or delayed the use of telehealth, and consumer acceptance of telehealth. The Role of Telehealth in an Evolving Health Care Environment: Workshop Summary discusses the current evidence base for telehealth, including available data and gaps in data; discuss how technological developments, including mobile telehealth, electronic intensive care units, remote monitoring, social networking, and wearable devices, in conjunction with the push for electronic health records, is changing the delivery of health care in rural and urban environments. This report also summarizes actions that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) can undertake to further the use of telehealth to improve health care outcomes while controlling costs in the current health care environment.
This third global survey of the WHO Global Observatory for eHealth (GOe) investigated how eHealth can support universal health coverage(UHC) in Member States. A total of 125 countries participated in the survey ? a clear reflection of the growing interest in this area. The report considers eHealth foundations built through policy development funding approaches and capacity building in eHealth through the training of students and professionals. It then observes specific eHealth applications such as mHealth telehealth electronic health records systems and eLearning and how these contribute to the goals of UHC. Of interest is the extent to which legal frameworks protect patient privacy in EHRs as health care systems move towards to delivering safer more efficient and more accessible health care. Finally the rapidly emerging areas of social media for health care as well as big data for research and planning are reported.
Fundamentals of Telemedicine and Telehealth provides an overview on the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) to solve health problems, especially for people living in remote and underserviced areas. With the advent of new technologies and improvement of internet connectivity, telehealth has become a new subject requiring a new understanding of IT devices and how to utilize them to fulfill health needs. The book discusses topics such as digitizing patient information, technology requirements, existing resources, planning for telehealth projects, and primary care and specialized applications. Additionally, it discusses the use of telemedicine for patient empowerment and telecare in remote locations. Authored by IMIA Telehealth working group, this book is a valuable source for graduate students, healthcare workers, researchers and clinicians interested in using telehealth as part of their practice or research. - Presents components of healthcare that can be benefitted from remote access and when to rely on them - Explains the current technologies and tools and how to put them to effective use in daily healthcare - Provides legal provisions for telehealth implementation, discussing the risks of remote healthcare provision and cross border care
In the aftermath of a disaster, medical infrastructure is often significantly impacted or destroyed in the affected zone. Recognizing the need for an effective system for deployment in disaster zones, the Emerging Security Challenges Division within NATO's Science for Peace and Security Program (SPS) initiated the development of a multinational telemedicine system (MnTS). Such a system can improve access to health services and increase survival rates in emergency situations spanning both geographical and time zones. This book presents a review of this NATO-funded MnTS, and follows the thematic approach to its development. The book is divided into 14 chapters; Chapter 1 includes a historical review of telemedicine and disasters and Chapter 2 provides a historical perspective of NATO's efforts in the field of telemedicine, while Chapters 3 – 12 summarize the development of the MnTS. Critical components of the MnTS are addressed, such as overall organizational structure, the integration of information technology, legal and regulatory considerations, and outreach and public awareness. The evaluation of the MnTS in a field exercise is described, and the book closes with a final summary of the MnTS. The book addresses the challenges faced in deploying telemedicine following a disaster, such as IT, language, culture and legal issues, and provides a template for making telemedicine part of international disaster response.
Telemedicine and telehealth are changing the face of health care delivery and becoming a multi-billion dollar industry. Dr. Darkins and Dr. Cary share their knowledge and provide practical insights and advice on making telemedicine programs into successful clinical services and a productive business. The book gives background knowledge and useful tips on starting up and managing programs in an array of settings. Most importantly, the book is based on the recognition that patients are customers of health care and telemedicine companies developing new products vital to delivering care to rural or inaccessible clients is vital to health care's future.
According to one of the numerous definitions of telemedicine "providing medicine at a distance" any doctor being trained in the use of some telematic devices could effort that practice. The reality is far from this because, to assure a safe practice, people have to learn and bear a minimum understanding of a wide range of topics: from economics to telecommunications and from medicine to legal aspects Technology learning is not limited to technology itself but linked to its social practical consequences in all their aspects. To guarantee that none of the aspects related with telemedicine are missed, this minimum knowledge has to be fixed, organised and in some way standardised. The main purpose of this book is to structure the basic knowledge linked to teaching to provide or practising telemedicine as well as an overview of the technology developments linked to this new discipline. As expressed in the title, the book is precisely structured as a "handbook" ( the only existing one ) whose main value is the joint opinion of all the participating authors of what are the minimum teaching requirements for anyone that would like to learn telemedicine. It is not a full treatise nor a complete recollection of all telemedicine applications or telemedicine basics. It was built with the aim of creating awareness to the academic authorities and health care community representatives on the fact that telemedicine practices in any of their aspects (technology development, telecommunications approach, law and regulations, medical practice), require a minimum knowledge that has to be respected in order to guarantee safe and appropriate medical practice. Nowadays this fact is enhanced by the evidence that welfare expenses cannot be endlessly increased, whilst an efficient health provision system in the context of the information society, will mark a new trend to configure health care practice in the next century. If training and teaching schemes are to cope with the demands of society it seems obvious that those careers and professions that are purvey to the Body of Knowledge BoK of telemedicine should consider structured and sufficient training in telemedicine.