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In the first of a two-part series on technology in health care, Firas Sarhan explains the government drive to promote telehealth
Keywords
* Telehealth * Telemedicine * Telecare * Technology * Ageing population * Long-term conditions * Diagnosis and treatment
As people live longer with chronic diseases and more costly technological treatments are developed, current models of health care are becoming increasingly unsustainable.
The number of people needing health care is set to quadruple by 2050, placing heavy demands on services in terms of cost and provision of care workers (MacGinnis et al 2010).
Technology, particularly in the form of telecommunication networks, offers a solution to these increasing demands.
One of these developments is telehealth, a term often used interchangeably with telemedicine and telecare, to describe methods of information exchange between patients and healthcare staff at different locations (see box).
The technology was developed to transfer care out of hospitals and into home, community or 'smart home' settings (Craig and Patterson 2006).
The Department of Health (DH) has published several documents promoting the use of new technologies, describing telecare and telehealth as 'technological innovations that can provide the care and reassurances people need to allow them to remain living in their own homes' (MacGinnis et al 2010, Norris 2002).
The DH is carrying out...