June 07, 2008
Telemedicine Comes Home
Advances in telemedicine have less to do with the tele- than with the medicine. In the long term, it may be less about providing long-distance care to people who are unwell, and more about monitoring people using wearable or implanted sensors in an effort to spot diseases at an early stage.
According to The Economist Technology Quarterly, the emphasis will shift from acute to chronic conditions, and from treatment to prevention. Today’s stress on making medical treatment available to people in remote settings is just one way telemedicine can be used—and it is merely the tip of a very large iceberg that is floating closer and closer to home.
The authors point out that is because telemedicine holds great promise within mainstream health care. Countless trials are under way to assess technology that can monitor people who have been diagnosed with heart conditions, or diseases like diabetes, from the comfort of their own homes. Rather than having their devices periodically checked at a clinic, some pacemaker patients can now have their implants inspected via mobile phone. That way, they need only visit the clinic when it is absolutely necessary.
Posted by rsk at June 7, 2008 10:35 PM