Wednesday, September 21, 2011

The Benefits of Telemedicine

Nowadays almost every person in the UK has access to the internet either at home or at work, yet it is hard to find examples where internet enabled healthcare is applied. According to a report by the NHS Confederation, the NHS is behind the rest of the world when it comes to telemedicine; the underlying part of this problem is the assumption that patients are always in favour of remote consultation.

Telemedicine is an especially attractive proposition for those patients that live in rural areas, one example of a successful application it is the remote stroke consultation where doctors can use video to talk to their patients as well as viewing their scans from a laptop. This allows them to make swift care decisions on treatment that can be provided at the local’s patient unit. A quick delivery of drugs is essential when it comes to minimizing the effects of a stroke; according to the North Cumbria University hospitals trust, the introduction of this service will mean that 24 more patients in the area will survive a stroke each year.

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