Telehealth

Telehealth is a broad term, encompassing telemedicine, e-health, mobile health, and telepsychiatry/telemental health. The term refers to the delivery of health and mental services (e.g., provider-patient and provider-specialist interactions, diagnostics, treatment, education, consultation, information sharing, monitoring, and reminders) via telecommunication and information technology. As physical and mental health largely determines quality of life throughout the life span, telehealth has significant implications for everyone. This entry summarizes the current status of telehealth from a life-span perspective and approaches to integrate it into routine health-care systems.

Teletechnology has become increasingly reliable and inexpensive to allow transmission of biometric/physiologic data and high-resolution image/video files, videoconferencing, and other methods of diagnosing, treating, and monitoring patients remotely. As a result, telehealth has been growing significantly as a cost-effective alternative for patients ...