Telemedicine is the use of medical information exchanged from one site to another via electronic communications to improve patients' health status. This is a rapidly developing application of clinical medicine, where medical information is transferred through interactive audio-visual media for the purpose of consulting. Telemedicine can also be used to conduct examinations as well as remote medical procedures and has been shown to reduce the cost of healthcare and increase efficiency through better management of chronic diseases, shared health professional staffing, reduced travel times and fewer or shorter hospital stays. Telemedicine applications will play an increasingly important role in health care and provide tools that are indispensable for home health care, remote patient monitoring and disease management.
