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Telemedicine:
Have You Gone Virtual Yet? What exactly is telemedicine? And, how has telemedicine evolved from traditional phone calls, consults, or nurse triage that you have been doing for years to communicate with and care for your patients? According to the American Telemedicine Association, telemedicine can be defined as “the use 36
| AUGUST 2015
of medical information exchanged from one site to another via electronic communications to improve a patient’s clinical health status. Telemedicine includes a growing variety of applications and services using two-way video, email, smart phones, wireless tools and other forms of telecommunications technology.”¹
As a part of telemedicine, a virtual consultation is “an internet physician consultation for which, depending on the diagnosis, medical therapy may be prescribed.”²
Types of telemedicine: • The most basic form of telemedicine includes a phone consultation with a patient