Telehealth Defined

Definitions:

Telehealth – delivery of health care from a distance

• Originally used to describe administrative or educational functions related to telemedicine. Now used as umbrella term to describe all possible variations of health care services using telecommunications


• Many forms of telehealth including telemedicine, tele-education and nursing telepractice.


• Defined by Industry Canada’s Advisory Council on Health Info-structure as “the use of information and communication technology to deliver health and health care services and information over large and small areas. (CNA, 2000)
  

Telemedicine is a subset of telehealth. It includes many sub specialties using live videoconferencing systems. It is the direct provision of clinical care via telecommunications i.e. diagnosing, treating or following up with a patient at a distance.

Telecommunication – currently 4 modes including:
1. voice only i.e. ordinary telephone
2. video/images i.e. digital pictures
3. data exchange i.e. keyboard/mouse operations)
4. virtual contact i.e. videoconferencing