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A Tele-Medicine Unit

1. Definition
We can define Tele-Medicine as the rapidly developing scientific field that deals with biomedical information, data, and knowledge—their storage, retrieval, and optimal use for problem solving and decision making. It accordingly touches on all basic and applied fields in biomedical science and is closely tied to modern information technologies, notably in the areas of computing and communication (medical computer science). The emergence of medical informatics as a new discipline is due in large part to advances in computing and communications technology, to an increasing awareness that the knowledge base of medicine is essentially unmanageable by traditional paper-based methods, and to a growing conviction that the process of informed decision making is as important to modern biomedicine as is the collection of facts on which clinical decisions or research plans are made.
Tele-medicine initiatives are designed to present proactive, coordinated, and evidence-based healthcare where the clinical, social and technological issues are combined to create a flexible patient-focused health care system. E-Healthcare is defined as a way of delivering and achieving better health outcomes through effective and innovative use of health information. It includes in the health sector “the use of digital data-transmitted, stored and retrieved electronically-for clinical, educational and administrative purposes, both at local site and at a distance

2. Objectives

To develop and evaluate the techniques needed to remake healthcare from an industry based on uncoordinated consultations at doctor’s offices and hospitals into a coherent, continuous, patient-centered process of service delivery.
Toward this end, the increasing ubiquity of the Internet and wireless local area networks provides the means for (at the patient’s discretion) sharing plans and data essential to quality healthcare. Challenges lie in coming up with the right user interfaces (for patients and healthcare professionals), metaphors for collaboration of distributed caregivers, knowledge representation schemes, on-line education methods, decision support agents, data mining methods (to uncover what’s actually happening) and policies and methods for distributing information.
These challenges form a major facet of the larger domain known as health informatics, which also includes medical image processing, telemedicine, hospital information systems, and medical decision theory. Benefits of health informatics include better-quality healthcare through better informed healthcare providers, cheaper healthcare (e.g. by reduced travel costs and less duplication of tests), and increased satisfaction and lowered anxiety of patients through more complete disclosure of information to patients and through their participation in the healthcare process.
The work of the Health Informatics Laboratory proceeds in three major themes: Healthcare Systems, Health Consumer Partnership and Mobility, and Health Data Mining and Data Quality. All of the work is heavily influenced by the practical needs of chronic disease management because of the high and growing prevalence of diabetes and other chronic illnesses in the developing world.

3. Resources

• Ministry of Health, Sri Lanka

• Postgraduate library, Teaching Hospital, Peradeniya

• Tele-medicine unit, Teaching Hospital, Kandy

• Faculty of engineering, University of Peradeniya

• E-library, Faculty of Medicine, University of Peradeniya

• Institute of Health Systems, India

• International Medical informatics Association

• Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association

• European Federation of Medical Informatics

4. Proposed Activities

i. Computer-based patient record systems
ii. Decision support systems
iii. Hospital information systems
iv. Computer-assisted management protocol systems
v. Standards development
vi. Security, confidentiality, and privacy
vii. Medical data mining
viii. Data base accessible to the general public
ix. Medical informatics learning unit for Health sector staff

6. Conclusion
The aim of Tele-Medicine is to provide high quality health care to all health consumers; to increase home care by remotely monitoring chronically ill patients in their homes; and to reduce the need for hospital care for patients. It is also to develop preventive health education and through the use of information technology reduce errors, waste and costs. This is being achieved through the interchange of collaborative multiple health care teams across regional and international boundaries and by the projection of specialist medical and surgical expertise to rural and remote areas. It is also being developed by the instant access to comprehensive secure, reliable and standardized health records; the integration of hospital, community, insurance industry, pharmacy, government, home and educational health management systems; and the provision of computer based training programs to health professionals.
Electronic information systems are revolutionizing health-care practice, research and education. Efficient management of information improves patient satisfaction and makes time available for new aspects of practice and for learning. Many health-care professionals realize they need skills in finding and using information, and in assessing information systems.
A Tele-Medicine unit is intended for health care professionals whose prime focus may be in clinical care delivery, management, education, quality assurance, information systems, or research.

Published By:
Dr.M.D.Dhananjaya Bulathwatta,
Medical Officer In charge,
Bukha Local Hospital.
Sultanate of Oman.
26.08.08
Telephone: +968 92918295, +968 26828713, +94814921845, +94112590198
E-mail: dbulathwatta@gmail.com