Telehealth and the global health network in the 21st century. From homecare to public health informatics

• Published in: Computer methods and programs in biomedicine Vol. 64; no. 3; pp. 155 - 167
• Main Author: KUN, Luis G
• Format: Conference Proceeding Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Shannon Elsevier Science 01-03-2001
• Subjects: Aged; Biological and medical sciences; Chronic Disease - economics; Computational Biology - trends; Computerized, statistical medical data processing and models in biomedicine; Databases, Factual; Decision Support Systems, Clinical - trends; Health Care Costs; Health Services for the Aged - economics; Health Services for the Aged - trends; Home Care Services - economics; Home Care Services - trends; Humans; Medical computing and teaching; Medical Records Systems, Computerized - trends; Medical sciences; Public Health - trends; Telemedicine - organization & administration; Telemedicine - trends; United States; United States; Biomedical data processing; Perspective; Technical progress; Telemedicine; At home; Information infrastructure; Information technology; Public health; Implementation
• ISSN: 0169-2607; 1872-7565
• DOI: 10.1016/S0169-2607(00)00135-8

The Information Era we live in has created new challenges and opportunities. This age of information highways has an economic price, which has not been properly evaluated. Detailed studies are needed to prove the cost and medical effectiveness of these technologies as well as its effects in the quality of life. Our society's future may depend on it. People are living longer, discoveries in genetics and in information technology are not only helping produce newer drugs faster but also providing the opportunity to exploit new areas such as disease prevention. These technologies provide a variety of opportunities to address public health challenges such as universal access for the uneducated, counter-bioterrorism, telemedicine, distance education, and home care. These opportunities present new challenges such as: surveillance, privacy/confidentiality/security of personal information which will affect all of our lives. No strategy has been presented publicly (yet) addressing (neither) the benefits (n)or the pitfalls of such technologies. From an economic point of view it is an imperative necessity to understand the importance of the Information Technology Infrastructure (ITI) and what it is. The investments in creating and maintaining this ITI will not come from a single application area such as healthcare, but rather from a combination of sources such as electronic commerce, banking, financial, manufacturing, entertainment, travelling, weather forecasting, pharmaceuticals, education, defence and many other 'industries' or application areas.