Telehealth Innovations in Health Education and Training

Abstract

Telehealth applications are increasingly important in many areas of health education and training. In addition, they will play a vital role in biomedical research and research training by facilitating remote collaborations and providing access to expensive/remote instrumentation. In order to fulfill their true potential to leverage education, training, and research activities, innovations in telehealth applications should be fostered across a range of technology fronts, including online, on-demand computational models for simulation; simplified interfaces for software and hardware; software frameworks for simulations; portable telepresence systems; artificial intelligence applications to be applied when simulated human patients are not options; and the development of more simulator applications. This article presents the results of discussion on potential areas of future development, barries to overcome, and suggestions to translate the promise of telehealth applications into a transformed environment of training, education, and research in the health sciences.

Improving Proton Therapy Accessibility Through Seamless Electronic Integration of Remote Treatment Planning Sites

“…[29][30][31][32] Although the cost of the hardware may present a budgetary challenge for smaller clinics, 33 the approach we propose will naturally scale upward as network capacities are expanding, giving users the ability to see and hear in high definition, while engaging in the real-time remote manipulation of complex treatment plans. The solution also gives users the ability to seamlessly interact, as if working side by side.…”

Video Communication in Telemedicine

“…Realizing telehealth's broad potential, for example, in telelearning, telemonitoring, telesurgical planning environments, telerobotic surgery, and teleconsultation, will allow forward-looking institutions to teach anything, anytime, anywhere with the same quality of curriculum and mentorship as delivered in traditional classroom settings, focusing on competence mastery rather than information mastery (Conde et al, 2010). In India, the majority (70%) of medical experts live in the big cities.…”

Implementing the Chronic Disease Self Management Model in Vulnerable Patient Populations: Bridging the Chasm through Telemedicine

“…A few of the resources available in medical education include MedBiquitous, the International Virtual Medical School (IVIMEDS), Health Education Assets Library (HEAL), Competencies Across the Continuum of Health Education (CACHE), and the Multimedia Education Resource for Learning and On line Teaching (MERLOT). There are also exciting innovations in post-graduate health education and training where " surgical students geographically separated can collaboratively learn and interact with specialists, telemonitoring environments where trainees may be hand-held by geographically separated experts, and telesurgical planning environments where experts who are geographically separated may collaborate to plan surgery" (Conde et al, 2009). As the concept, development, and implementation of TM emerges from the evolving economic and technology forces driving healthcare, patients will inevitably need to confront and contend with it.…”