e-Health Defined
The term e-Health has been
in use since the year 2000. e-Health includes much of medical information
science, but is inclined to prioritize the delivery of clinical information,
care and services rather than the functions of technologies. No single
consensus, all-encompassing definition of e-health exists – the term tends to be
defined in terms of a series of characteristics specified at varying levels of
detail and generality. e-health is considered an important revolution in healthcare since the
beginning of modern medicine or even public health measures, including
sanitation, clean water and more.
The term e-Health can encompass a range of services or systems that are on
the edge of medicine/healthcare and information technology, including:
- Electronic health records: enabling the communication of patient data between different healthcare professionals.
- Telemedicine: physical and psychological treatments at a distance.
- Consumer health informatics: use of electronic resources on medical topics by healthy individuals or patients.
- Health knowledge management: e.g. in an overview of latest medical journals, best practice guidelines or epidemiological tracking.
- Virtual healthcare teams: consisting of healthcare professionals who collaborate and share information on patients through digital equipment.
- m-Health includes the use of mobile devices in collecting aggregate and patient level health data, providing healthcare information to practitioners, researchers, and patients, real-time monitoring of patient vitals, and direct provision of care via mobile telemedicine.
- Healthcare Information Systems: also often refers to software solutions for appointment scheduling, patient data management, work schedule management and other administrative tasks surrounding health.
Over time, chronic patients often acquire a high level of knowledge about the
processes involved in their own care, and frequently develop a routine in coping
with their condition. For these types of routine patients, front-end e-health
solutions tend to be relatively easy to implement.
What exactly is e-Mental health?
e-Mental health refers to the delivery of mental health services via internet
through: videoconferencing, chat, or email web applications. e-Mental health
encompasses online talk therapy, online pharmaceutical therapy, online
counseling, computer-based interventions, cyber mental health approaches, and
online life coaching. This form of psychological intervention modality offers a
series of benefits, as well as challenges to providers and clients. Most notable
of all challenges is online security.
How does Telemedicine and m-Health work?
Telemedicine
is the use of medical information exchanged from one site to another via
electronic communications to improve patients’ health status or for educational
purposes. It includes consultative, diagnostic and treatment services. Mobile
health information technology (m-Health) typically refers to portable devices
with the capability to create, store, retrieve, and transmit data in real time
between end users for the purpose of improving patient safety and quality of
care. The flow of mobile health information is characterized by portable
hardware coupled with software applications central to patient care and
subsequently increases clinicians’ reach, mobility, and ease of information
access, regardless of location.
For example, a clinician might use a mobile device to access a patient
electronic health record, write and transmit prescriptions to a pharmacy,
interact with patient treatment plans, communicate public health data, order
diagnostic tests, review labs, or access medical references. Data transmission
is accomplished by technologies common in everyday life including: blue tooth,
cell phone, infra-red, WiFi, and wired technologies; all of which operate as
part of a network. Mobile devices can be helpful across the health care
spectrum, transmitting vital information quickly during an acute public health
crisis or being used for ongoing needs, such as education and training. When
utilized for patient care, mobile devices are credited with improving patient
safety by eliminating errors commonly associated with paper-based medical
records and improving and enhancing the continuity of care. In addition to
improved patient outcomes, workflow and administrative efficiencies from the use
of mobile devices can produce cost savings for the user or user
organization.
The future of Telemedicine
Telemedicine applications will play an increasingly important role in
healthcare and provide tools that are indispensable for home health care, remote
patient monitoring, and disease management. Telemedicine will include not only
rural health and battlefield care, but nursing home, assisted living facilities,
and maritime and aviation applications.
Advances in technology, including wireless connectivity and mobile devices,
will give practitioners, medical centers, and hospitals important new tools for
managing patient care, electronic records, and medical billing in order to
ultimately enable patients to have more control of their own well being.
The benefits of Mobile Health (m-Health)
m-Health or mobile health, is a term used
for the practice of medicine and public health, supported by mobile devices. The
term is most commonly used in reference to using mobile communication devices,
such as mobile phones and PDAs, for health services and information. The
m-Health field has emerged as a sub-segment of e-Health, the use of information
and communication technology such as computers, mobile phones, communications
satellite, patient monitors, etc., for health services and information. m-Health
applications include the use of mobile devices in collecting community and
clinical health data, delivery of healthcare information to practitioners,
researchers, and patients, real-time monitoring of patient vital signs, and
direct provision of care via mobile telemedicine.
While m-Health certainly is applicable for industrialized nations, the field
has emerged in recent years primarily as an application for developing
countries, stemming from the rapid rise of mobile phone penetration in
low-income nations. The field, then, largely emerges as a means of providing
greater access to larger segments of populations in developing countries, as
well as improving the capacity of health systems in such countries to provide
quality healthcare.
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Source: http://www.medwow.com/articles/
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