Health systems worldwide are under increasing pressure to deliver services in an efficient and cost-effective manner. Telehealth, or the delivery of health services at a distance, has an important role to play in achieving this. Communication technologies are becoming more readily accessible and affordable, and an array of telehealth applications are emerging which have potential benefits for patients and clinicians, particularly in areas where health services are traditionally limited, non-existent or difficult to access.This book presents papers selected from contributions to the 2nd International Conference on Global

In 1996, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) released its report Telemedicine: A Guide to Assessing Telecommunications for Health Care. In that report, the IOM Committee on Evaluating Clinical Applications of Telemedicine found telemedicine is similar in most respects to other technologies for which better evidence of effectiveness is also being demanded. Telemedicine, however, has some special characteristics-shared with information technologies generally-that warrant particular notice from evaluators and decision makers. Since that time, attention to telehealth has continued to grow in both the public and private sectors. Peer-reviewed journals and professional societies are devoted to telehealth, the federal government provides grant funding to promote the use of telehealth, and the private technology industry continues to develop new applications for telehealth. However, barriers remain to the use of telehealth modalities, including issues related to reimbursement, licensure, workforce, and costs. Also, some areas of telehealth have developed a stronger evidence base than others. The Health Resources and Service Administration (HRSA) sponsored the IOM in holding a workshop in Washington, DC, on August 8-9 2012, to examine how the use of telehealth technology can fit into the U.S. health care system. HRSA asked the IOM to focus on the potential for telehealth to serve geographically isolated individuals and extend the reach of scarce resources while also emphasizing the quality and value in the delivery of health care services. This workshop summary discusses the evolution of telehealth since 1996, including the increasing role of the private sector, policies that have promoted or delayed the use of telehealth, and consumer acceptance of telehealth. The Role of Telehealth in an Evolving Health Care Environment: Workshop Summary discusses the current evidence base for telehealth, including available data and gaps in data; discuss how technological developments, including mobile telehealth, electronic intensive care units, remote monitoring, social networking, and wearable devices, in conjunction with the push for electronic health records, is changing the delivery of health care in rural and urban environments. This report also summarizes actions that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) can undertake to further the use of telehealth to improve health care outcomes while controlling costs in the current health care environment.

Although telehealth (one component of ehealth) continues to be implemented around the world, sound evidence of its value to healthcare systems remains limited and the tipping point at which its universal adoption will be assured has yet to be reached. On the other hand, the spontaneous growth of mobile healthcare solutions and applications offered by smart phones have become more common amongst healthcare providers, and the creation of Web-based wellness promotion and health management tools has opened up a whole new area in which telehealth can provide future benefits. This book presents selected full papers from Global Telehealth 2014 (GT2014), held in Durban, South Africa, in November 2014. This was the third international conference in the series, and this year’s theme was "Integrated, Innovative, Scalable and Sustainable Solutions"; emphasizing the importance of these aspects in achieving wider acceptance and adoption of ehealth and telehealth. The book will be of interest to all those involved in the global telehealth community.

The adoption of telehealth is growing, accompanied by a diversification of service delivery and a broadening of access. All of this is pushing the boundaries of traditional healthcare worldwide. Latest developments include the growth of Mobile Health (mHealth), with access to information and services by means of personal devices such as tablet computers and smart phones, virtual healthcare services, which use online interactive environments to engage with the subject of care and remotely enable or mimic the desired patient-clinician relationship, and the personal and home health monitoring market. This book presents the proceedings of Global Telehealth 2015 (GT2015), hosted by COACH: Canada's Health Informatics Association, and held in May 2015, in Toronto, Canada. The theme of this year’s conference is 'Serving the Underserved: Integrating Technology & Information for Better Healthcare'. The leadership and knowledge reflected in the 25 papers collected here will promote the equity of access and uniform provision of healthcare services and influence health policy and strategic decisions worldwide, and the book will be of interest to all those whose work involves the various forms of telehealth in use today.

This book aims to explore technology solutions and systems to help people in remote areas in order to improve medical care. Access to health care services is critical to good health, but residents of remote areas face a variety of access barriers. The obstacles faced by health care providers and patients in rural areas are very different from those in urban areas. This could be caused by economic factors, cultural and social differences, educational deficiencies, lack of recognition by legislators, and the sheer isolation of living in inland areas, all of which conspire to create health care disparities and hinder people living in inland areas in their struggle to lead normal, healthy lives. Based on available analyses, further progress is needed to promote appropriateness of care, address geographic imbalances in health care use, and prevent the spread of risk factors including chronic diseases and regular health problems. To eradicate these problems, it is essential to develop a telemedicine system with ICT integration that will help patients in inland areas by using contemporary technologies: it would thus be possible for patients to meet their goals using these systems even without the presence of a physician since authenticated prescriptions are generated by doctors and can be transmitted to patients electronically. The volume will contain a number of ideas from researchers who are already working to find solutions and will give insights into exploring innovative methods and new systems developed.

This book is a comparative study of government and public policy in the twenty small states of the Pacific Islands, examining the often tense societal interactions over competing conceptions of public-sector institutions and authority, rule-making, and policy processes.

A new addition to the successful telehealth series,Telehealth in the Developing Worldaims to balance the relative lack of published information on successful telehealth solutions in the developing world.