Telemedicine is the method by which a Doctor (or other Health Professional can have direct access to a patient (and/or their data) over a communication device. This can be as simple as a call on an analog phone, but the current capabilities are way beyond that.

 

Through new, emerging, and proposed technology, you can have two way accesses to patient, current monitored and test data, historical records/baselines, access to any current regional information, and other additional features … almost anywhere.

 

Telemedicine can help with the shortage of Doctors and RNs, and extend Healthcare to more people in more places with fewer costs.

• Hospitals, Clinics, and Doctors need periodic On-Call Doctor support for Patient Overflow (and major emergency) conditions. Having On-Call Doctor Service and/or  agreements to share staff with other hospitals (reduces the need for staffing, can handle overflows that can’t be staffed for, and support emergency shelters that do not have fully trained medical personnel)

• Doctors sometimes want outside consulting on a patient, and telemedicine can improve the process

• Doctors can give direct support for a number of end-use applications of the System that use Medical Assistants for much of the examinations, which can extend more healthcare to Disaster Relief, Humanitarian Relief, Rural Clinics, Neighborhood Clinics, Mobile Clinics, Remote Retreats, Amusement Parks, Retirement/Assisted Living Centers, Trains, Planes, Ships, Emergency Site Clinics, and the list goes on)

• Conceivably, there could be Doctor Telemedicine Services set up to support anyone in an Emergency using telemedicine with a Simple Smartphone APP

• Doctors could provide Paid or Volunteer services to help  in clinics worldwide, in their spare time without the need for any travel

• Through Localization (modifications for language and/or regions) Doctors would have access to regional medical information and the caregivers would have access to information and instructions in their native language. Through automatic translations, doctors could commutate with patients and caregivers.

• The System could support “out and about” On-call Telemedicine for Doctors to use their Smartphones and then connect to any available large TVs, tablets and other devices to get additional patient viewing and data.

• Doctors could support  “house calls” for pre/post consultations or a current issue with the patient (through the individual, a friend/advocate, Medical Assistant and/or Doctor Telemedicine as needed) within their residences or a nearby (Neighborhood, Mobile, Facility, or Luggable) Clinic

• RN (“Ask a Nurse”) services could  include Telemedicine

 

Additional Notes:

• Having the viewing capability to see and interact with the patient (or onsite caregiver) is critical for Telemedicine. PCs support multiple screens and this is also envisioned for Smartphones and Tablets, including combinations of PC Monitors, TV Monitors, Laptops, Tablets, and Smartphones. Many of these technologies already exist, but may need some extra development in pairing between different portable devices and displaying different screen data across them.

• High speed data links are available in most parts of the world through satellite, microwave, cable, cellular, fiber, Wi-Fi, etc. This can extend Telemedicine to many parts of the World that were inaccessible or required onsite Doctors.

• Medical Devices are getting smaller and able to perform more tasks with less skilled individuals. By linking these devices into the System, the data can be shown, collected, and analyzed in real-time.  (e.g. new evolving “Tricorders”, smartphones, and other devices that a person would have or be part of an Emergency Medical Kit or Clinic). Since the pieces are “Plug and Play” with the same “Look and Feel”, they are easily integrated and incorporated into the System

• Another feature could include Search and Rescue Robotic Devices that  can be equipped with audio, camera, video for two way visual communication, light, “tricorder”, network repeater, “RF or other location technology”, Telemedicine, and visual issue recognition tools

• Cloud Data and Computing now support HIPAA which could allow a wide variety of data and data access to authorized personnel

• With Visual analysis tools with inputted or automatically collected symptoms, Doctors can be automatically alerted to correlated hits for certain conditions (including regional specific issues), while performing Telemedicine

• Intelligent Adaptive Examination Decision Trees can help the Doctor or Care Provider to collect the proper data based on a number of historical and current conditions.

 

System Components:

• Smartphone, Tablet, and/or PC with downloaded APPs

• High Speed Access to the Internet (satellite, Cable, Cellular, Fiber, Wi-Fi… etc.)

• Optional access to one or more large-ish screen displays

• Optional access to Cloud Data and Processing  if the patient data is stored there