ABSTRACT
Telemedicine is the delivery of health care and the exchange of health-care information across distances. Telemedicine episodes may be classified on the basis of: the interaction between the client and the expert; and the type of information being transmitted. The information transmitted between the two sites can take many forms, including data and text, audio, still images and video pictures. The recent developments of mobile phones and satellite communications have allowed mobile telemedicine. Most operational telemedicine services, of which the majority concern diagnosis and clinical management at a distance, are in industrialized countries, especially the USA, Canada, Australia and the UK. Telemedicine has also been shown to improve the consistency and quality of health care. In all remote or rural areas, telemedicine could have a great impact, permitting among other opportunities, better diagnostic and therapeutic services, faster and easier access to medical knowledge, and enhanced communication between health-care workers.
