Tele Medicine
Tele Medicine
Tele Medicine
1.0 INTRODUCTION
In this day and age, technologies are widely use in many sectors. The
rapid changes and development of communication technology lead to the improvement
in managing information in health care. Nowadays, telemedicine is an emerging field
within medicine with potential to alter the delivery of health care. The term telemedicine
can be defined as the delivery of healthcare services, where distance is a critical factor,
by healthcare professionals using information and communication technologies for the
exchange of valid information in diagnosis, treatment and prevention of disease an
injuries, and for the continuing education of health care providers as well as research
and evaluation, all in the interest of advancing health of individuals and their
communities (World Health Organization, 1997). It means to facilitating access to
medical information and expertise. Based on the definitions above, I believe the
telemedicine goals are to improving of health care and by means in reducing cost
because the medical practitioners are able to manage their data systematically.
The concept of telemedicine are based on the convergence of computers and
telecommunication technology in the form of images, text and audio, the amount of
information and interaction that can be shared during a consultation changed (Forster,
Caring, 1997). Telemedicine are generally refers to the use of communications and
information technologies for the delivery of clinical care and will assist in transforming
the way healthcare services are delivered in the future. It is also can be use in remote
are.
In Malaysia, the telemedicine concept was still under development process.
Although it was in developing process, some of the hospitals in Malaysia have been
launched the telemedicine by the management of information and the operation in
surgery room. This includes the convention among Malaysian medical practitioners with
other country by using videoconferencing. Improvement of healthcare services in the
country requires continuous restructuring and process advancement. The most
innovative feature of Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC) telemedicine is its broad
definition and all-encompassing scope beyond the traditional point-to-point data
exchange model useful primarily to healthcare professionals in well-equipped urban
hospitals and laboratories. The role foresee for telemedicine includes personal self-help
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with health problems and choices for a health-promoting lifestyle through availability of
sound information and virtual health services. Telemedicine is also expected to equalize
imbalances in the distribution of physical health services.
There are various issues pertaining to the telemedicine. These issues that will be
discuss may be related with Malaysia situation which includes privacy, confidentiality,
security, information and medico legal cases, standards, legal and regulatory
requirement and technology and change management. Other issues that can be
highlighted also comprise of social and rural considerations.
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when it’s needed. This is to ensure the services meet the requirement of
the objective telemedicine is made. It also means that based on the
technology uses, it will facilitate the retrieval of the information health in
the point of need of both patients and medical practices. However, the
ethical codes are needed to conduct for publication of health information.
2.3 STANDARDS
Standards are made falls into two categories which defined by industry
and identify and defined for use in national network. It also command the
development and implementation of national identifiers for patients,
providers, payers, and employers, and the adoption of security and
privacy standards appropriate for the protection of individually identifiable
healthcare information. For instance, we can adapt by United States that
came along with the Standards for Privacy of Individually Identifiable
Health Information formulated under ‘Privacy Rule’ which includes
standards to protect the privacy of individually identifiable health
information. The rules apply to health plans, healthcare clearinghouses,
and certain healthcare providers, and present standards with respect to
the rights of individuals who are the subjects of this information,
procedures for the exercise of those rights, and the authorized and
required uses and disclosures of this information (Volkert, 2000). There
area number of different groups involved in developing international
standards for health informatics by means of both technical standards
and standards relating to terminology, coding and classification. The
International Organization for Standardization (ISO) has a technical
committee (TC 215) dealing with standardization in the field of information
for health, and Health Information and Communications Technology
(ICT). The aims are to achieve compatibility and interoperability between
independent systems, to ensure compatibility of data for comparative
statistical purposes and to reduce duplication of effort and redundancies.
The telemedicine policy and standards that were aligned by Malaysia
situation are firstly, common standards which use standards set by
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3.0 CONCLUSION
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