Telemedicine

Song Yun 11C **ITGS Area of Impact: Health Telemedicine**


 * What is Telemedicine? **

Telemedicine is a method of sharing medical information from two different places and can also be seen as a practice of medicine from a far distance. Patients for example, can communicate with doctors even if they are in different countries to medically help the patient through a series of instructions.

**What are the IT systems?**

The IT systems of telemedicine involve both software and hardware considerations. First, telemedicine is most commonly used to reduce time consumption between the patient and the doctor. There are two methods listed below.

Videoconferencing is a method that uses real time communication systems for holding individual or several people online for a conversation or a meeting. Instead of forwarding medical data from person to person in a given period of time such as sending e-mails, the two people communicate face to face with each other at instant. This method can be used for direct contact with doctors in emergencies or can be used for communication between doctors for medical advice. This technology is not only used in medical areas but also in business and news related material as well. The IT systems in videoconferencing are that there must be some way to communicate from far distances in real time. This includes being able to see and hear the other person from the other place fairly quickly.
 * IT System 1: Videoconferencing **


 * Videoconferencing Equipment: The Hardware **

First, two people need to see and hear each other from their respective locations. For this to happen they will need to have both video and audio input and output devices, with the use of videoconferencing equipment. Input devices can relate to video cameras that record all visual data. Output devices such as television sets or computer monitors can be used to project an image in front of the person, so that they can see them. Now, audio requires both input and output device like video. The input for audio can consist of microphones that the people speak into. Output can be speakers that project the sound energy towards the other person, so that they can hear them. Of course, both individuals will need all of these equipments for this to work.


 * Videoconferencing Equipment: Data Transfer/The Software **

When we talk about data transfer, it simply means that some form of data such as a picture is sent from one place to the other. In videoconferencing, the video and audio data must be sent from one location to the other as well and this all occurs online. One method to send such information would be to use a broadband connection. Broadband refers to a large band of wave frequencies that can transmit information through the use of optic fibers. Broadband is perfect for transmitting video and audio data, due to its large bandwidth. The larger the bandwidth, the more information can be sent. However, even with a good broadband connection, more must be done to ensure a real time conference where there is no interruption such as lag. There is a huge amount of data being sent because both video and audio data take up a lot of space. Thus, data compression software can be used to compress the data. This then enables the data to be sent at a much faster rate.

Ultimately, all these systems show that both patients and doctors can talk with each other when both are online.


 * IT System 2: Computer/Smart Clothing **

Aside from videoconferencing, another method with the use of digital clothing can be used for treating patients. These clothes can be classified as intelligent biomedical clothing in health areas and can be worn on patients to show various body functions such as heart beat. Like videoconferencing, these digitized clothes can help in other areas in computer technology such portability and digital music. In telemedicine, the use of clothing is mainly there to monitor and collect the patients’ health data without the presence of a doctor at all. Doctors regularly collect data wherever the patient might at that moment.

**Computer Clothing Equipment: The Hardware**

The piece of clothing best suited for telemedicine would be a shirt. Many smart shirts had been produced from companies such as Adidas, Sensatex and Zephyr Technology. First of all hardware such as sensors are definitely present in the production of smart shirts to detect body temperature and button recognition. Another important aspect would be that the fabric the clothing is made of must be able to conduct electricity for any pieces of hardware to function. Fabrics like metallic yarn can be used but institutions like the MIT Media Labs use silk organza for making the clothing. Silk organza consists of a silk thread and copper foil wrapped around it. It is the copper that enables the fabric to conduct electricity and thus cause the sensors to function.


 * Computer Clothing Equipment: The Software and the Human Part of the System **

Due to increased collection health records, the use of databases will definitely help in computer clothing. A central database where all of the data is stored can be used to be universally used by every doctor in the hospital building. In addition, there seems to be some human parts of the IT system imminent in the smart shirts as well. Since doctors monitor the health statuses of patients from another location, there is a lot of support implemented when using this new system. For example, a single doctor may be monitoring several patients at once and need to collect data from all of his patients. Perhaps extra employment of workers may help to divide the work appropriately.


 * Areas of Impact: Health/Economic **

Due to this form of technology improving over the years, telemedicine may become more common in the future. Patients who are not willing to go to hospitals or are simply too far away can now talk to doctors online and receive help from their homes. This can improve many financial problems such as paying for hospital beds and this can also improve many medical businesses since they can now deal with more patients at once. In other words companies can expand their factors of production. The use of computer clothing in addition can increase employment in the health area as mentioned before.


 * Areas of Impact: Education **

Telemedicine can be used to train other doctors with videoconferencing and computer clothing. Medical students seeking advice or help could use both systems as a learning tool. Doctors can monitor other doctors when treating their patients as well. In the end this may increase the welfare of the whole society with improved health standards. This is because more doctors will be available in the future due to increased rate of training now. In economical terms this would be called a positive externality of consumption.

**The Social and Ethical Issues of Telemedicine**


 * Equality of Access **

The issue is that the technology needed for telemedicine to become possible may become confusing to the patient. This is because the patient themselves needs to have all of the teleconferencing equipment set up at their homes. The life shirts for example must be worn every time a measurement must be taken. In addition, the set up required for video conferencing can affect patients’ costs and need a lot of space. The patient may also have trouble using the equipment properly due inexperienced IT skills or even worse, may have some additional health hazards like dizziness as well. Therefore, using telemedicine may impose more problems then within normal treatment. Ultimately, the issue lays within the patients’ perspective, not the doctors’. Thus, using telemedicine only between doctors can cause fewer problems.


 * Privacy and Security **

Since people are talking in real time in front of each other, there could be a subject of impersonation when using this system. Some people may pretend to be an assistant or helper to the doctor you are used and may ask for personal information like your e-mail address for presumed security reasons. In reality, he may be saying this to get your other private information, causing many privacy issues. In addition, these conferences are recorded for documentation by doctors and can be seen as a digital health record of the patient. Normally, health records were on paper and were safely locked away for security reasons. Now since the data is digital it can be saved on computers. Ironically, these health records are open for attack because of mistakes done by employees within the medical personnel. Mistakes like leaving passwords on papers for unauthorized people to find or leaving files open when they are absent.


 * Bibliography:**

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telemedicine http://www.ecu.edu/cs-dhs/telemedicine/faq.cfm http://www.carle.org/Services/additional-services/telemedicine/index.aspx http://www.optometric.com/article.aspx?article=71561 http://tie.telemed.org/articles/article.asp?path=telemed101&article=tmcoming_nb_tie96.xml http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Videoconferencing http://www.topbits.com/how-video-conferencing-works.html http://www.topbits.com/broadband.html http://tie.telemed.org/articles/article.asp?path=telemed101&article=securenetwork_ef_tpr03.xml http://www.gizmag.com/go/2457/ http://computer.howstuffworks.com/computer-clothing.htm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smart_shirt http://www.examiner.com/x-12840-Health-Tech-Examiner~y2009m6d9-Smart-Shirt-of-the-future-monitors-Heart-Rates-Respiration-and-Temperature