The ATA (American Telemedicine Association) says "telemedicine is the use of medical information exchanged from one site to another via electronic communications to improve a patient’s clinical health status. Telemedicine includes a growing variety of applications and services using two-way video, email, smart phones, wireless tools and other forms of telecommunications technology."
Maybe this video will explain it a little better...
Advantages of Telemedicine
Improved Access – Telemedicine has been used to bring healthcare services to patients in distant locations. Not only does telemedicine improve access to patients but it also allows physicians and health facilities to expand their reach, beyond their own offices.
Cost Efficiencies – Telemedicine has been shown to reduce the cost of healthcare and increase efficiency through better management of chronic diseases, shared health professional staffing, reduced travel times, and fewer or shorter hospital stays.
Improved Quality – Studies have consistently shown that the quality of healthcare services delivered via telemedicine are as good those given in traditional in-person consolations
Patient Demand – Consumers want telemedicine. The greatest impact of telemedicine is on the patient, their family and their community. Using telemedicine technologies reduces travel time and related stresses for the patient.
Timeliness - Telemedicine Increases timeliness of treatment and decreases transfer rates while reducing medical costs through video technology.
Disadvantages of Telemedicine
Face to Face Communication - The primary disadvantage for telemedicine is that the patient and doctor are not sharing the same physical space. Adjustments in examination and treatment do have to be made because the doctor cannot actually touch the patient during an examination. The doctor must rely on the patient’s descriptive abilities instead of the doctor’s own expert touch.
Licensing - A doctor may be required to be licensed in the state in which the patient is physically located, as well as in the state where the doctor physically practices. In addition, doctors may be limited in whether they can see a new or existing patient, what conditions they can treat and under what circumstances they are allowed to provide care.
Payment - Although some states require Medicaid and private insurance plans to cover telemedicine services, not all states do, leaving many patients without coverage for telemedicine. Some states that do not typically cover telemedicine under Medicaid may allow reimbursement in cases of crisis care.
Test Results - Because the doctor is not physically present with the patient, sometimes it is easy to read the wrong entry regarding test results and diagnoses.
Privacy - A patient's information such as medical history, and private information is accessible from anywhere in the world, which does compromise your privacy some.
2 Examples of Telemedicine Being Used
An 83-year-old woman living in rural Missouri needed to see her physician, but she lived two hours from the clinic and suffered from severe arthritis, making traveling very difficult for her. So, the doctor's office came to her--via a videoconferencing device in the woman's home that let her speak with, and be seen by, her physician. Her home-care device included an electronic stethoscope that she used on herself; she transmitted its readings over the phone to her doctor, allowing him to listen to her heart and lungs as if she were standing right in front of him.
A six-year-old girl in Istanbul had a congenital heart defect that had her doctors stumped. They upload the child's test results to a cardiologist in Boston, then discussed her case with the cardiologist in a videoconference. The cardiologist recommended surgery; the girl flew to Boston for the operation and later resumed a normal, healthy life in Turkey.
