Telehealth Healthcare Informatics

Telehealth incorporates the delivery of care through a virtual means which allows medical experts to interact with patients remotely through information and telecommunications technologies. Telehealth through the advancement of technology allows patients to interact with clinicians to provide care at all levels within the care continuum. Through telehealth, clinical experts offer promotive and preventive health care to patients. Through remote medical visits, healthcare providers are able to offer health education and monitoring for patients with chronic or acute illnesses or those at risk to prevent disease. Telemedicine visits are an integral part of primary care and contribute to reducing the costs of hospital visits or actual home visits for the patients cutting on the cost of care. Through video services, the physician can conduct patient assessment through inspection and has the ability to share patient records with the integration of video-conferencing and the hospital or patient’s electronic health records or the store and forward feature that are available in patient portal within the electronic health records.

Stethoscope examination cameras form another important piece of technology that contributes to telehealth. Through the utilization of the devices provides the consulting physician with high-resolution images of the patients from a remote location. The devices some of which integrate technology that allows for the capture and the sharing of medical data patient documents and support video conferencing. Electronic medical records form another significant part of the telehealth information systems. This enhances quality in telehealth care and the comprehensiveness of the patient care provided. The technology that utilizes patient applications that allow automatic transmission of patient data and information to the health care provider offers a continuous patient monitoring platform and reduce the costs of frequent patient visits (Kazley, Diana, Ford & Menachemi, 2012).