ABSTRACT
This chapter describes how modern telecommunications technology can be applied to this situation to address the specific problems of isolation, the need to process growing amounts of data, and the need to relate to increasingly complex payment and review systems. The telemedicine project makes heavy use of the North Carolina Area Health Education Centers program for transportation and communications support. The term “telemedicine” has been used to describe a wide range of telecommunications systems, and alternative terms such as “telematics” and “distance care” have been proposed as ways to more specifically describe the various use of telecommunications technology in the health care field. Psychotherapy, speech therapy, allergy, and nutrition counseling have also been performed over telemedicine networks. Telemedicine technology has many applications in addition to remote diagnosis. The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has moved forward with an application of telemedicine technology in a rural area of eastern North Carolina.
