Βασικοί ορισμοί.

Telemedicine is the use of telecommunication and information technologies in order:

1. provide clinical health care at a distance
2. improve access to medical services that would often not be consistently available in distant rural communities
3. also used to save lives in critical care and emergency situations

Telehealth and eHealth are at times incorrectly interchanged with telemedicine.

Telehealth can refer to clinical and non-clinical services involving medical education, administration, and research.

The term eHealth is an umbrella term that includes telehealth, electronic medical records, and other components of health information technology.

 

Telecare is a term given to:

• offering remote care of old and physically less able people, providing the care and reassurance needed to allow them to remain living in their own homes
• use of sensors may be part of a package which can provide support for people with illnesses such as dementia, or people at risk of falling

Telecare is specifically different from telemedicine and telehealth.

Telecare refers to the idea of enabling people to remain independent in their own homes by providing person-centred technologies to support the individual or their carers.

 

mHealth is a term used for the practice of medicine and public health, supported by mobile devices.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The linkage between mHealth and eHealth is unquestionable. For example:

• an mHealth project that uses mobile phones to access data on HIV/AIDS rates would required an eHealth system in order to manage, store, and assess the data
• eHealth projects many times operate as the backbone of mHealth projects.

eHealth can largely be viewed as technology that supports the functions and delivery of healthcare.

mHealth rests largely on providing healthcare access

mHealth, based on mobile technology such as IPhones, healthcare, through information and delivery, can better reach areas, people, and/or healthcare practitioners with previously limited exposure to certain aspects of healthcare

 

Όλα τα παραπάνω μπορούν να τοποθετηθούν κάτω από μια ομπρέλα υπηρεσιών και τεχνολογιών τις οποίες θα μπορούσαμε να ονομάσουμε Ψηφιακή Υγεία (Digital Health). Αναφέρω ψηφιακή και όχι ηλεκτρονική μιας και η ψηφιοποίηση όλο και παραπάνω παραμέτρων (δεδομένων, εργαλείων, διαδικασιών, επικοινωνίας, μέσων λήψης απόφασης, μέσων/τεχνικών παρακολούθησης, υποβοήθησης, ενημέρωσης, εκπαίδευσης των ασθενών) θεωρώ πως καθιστά τον πρώτο όρο πιο κατάλληλο για να περιγράψει το μοντέλο υγείας που σχηματίζεται με τη χρήση όλων αυτών ταυτόχρονα.

Κλείνω με το βίντεο του γιατρού Daniel Craft, υπεύθυνου του ιατρικού προγράμματος του Singularity University. Μαζί με το βίντεο προτείνω να διαβάσετε και το άρθρο:

• The Future of Digital Health (pixels&pills: new directions of digital pharma)

Πηγή:εδώ