Next wave of tele-medicine: Virtual presence of medical personnel

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapterpeer-review

10 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) are being embedded into healthcare systemfront-end and back-end platforms both in the developing and developing world contexts in ways unimaginable 20 years ago. This trend has brought about ubiquity culminating into spatial-temporal healthcare delivery models where health practitioners and patients do not need to be simultaneously in the same physical domain in order for healthcare to be delivered. This chapter presents a development projectile of healthcare systems and explores interventions and current trends in pervasive healthcare delivery systems and makes a prognosis of what is to come in future. The first parts of the chapter generally present formulaic concepts about telemedicine. The chapter is hinged on literature and document reviews focussing on innovations in telemedicine and gives a commentary on what needs to be done to achieve true ubiquity in healthcare delivery systems both in the developing and developed world contexts. The chapter posits that pervasiveness will be highly enshrined into healthcare systems to a point where physicians will not have to leave their working space to provide a service. The design of the Defibrillator Drone, for example, provides an opportunity for healthcare application developers to develop information system applications which do not only carry medical supplies from one place to the other, but are able to reason and prescribe medications. With acute advances in the science of robotics and ICTs in general, this is a reality in the foreseeable future.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationHealth Information Systems and the Advancement of Medical Practice in Developing Countries
PublisherIGI Global
Pages168-180
Number of pages13
ISBN (Electronic)9781522522638
ISBN (Print)152252262X, 9781522522621
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 27 Feb 2017

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General Medicine

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