ABSTRACT
Emergency medical service (EMS) is characterized by distributed providers who must seamlessly integrate and coordinate to deliver quality patient care. Telemedicine is one mechanism to facilitate the synthesis of this distributed care. Realizing the potential of telemedicine, EMS has utilized such technology primarily for three purposes: documentation, education, and teleconsultation. To integrate seemingly disparate team members and their expertise while addressing patient needs and navigating the challenging clinical care system, the healthcare community has leveraged telemedicine. Considering the proposed exponential growth of telemedicine as well as the inherent nature of EMS being distributed and relying on technology to facilitate care, telemedicine is rife with opportunity. Within the clinical arena, telemedicine is used to supplement patient care, such as diagnostics and surgery. The chapter describes some general guidance for researchers and practitioners considering EMS telemedicine applications. Telemedicine implementation can be a complex and expensive process.
