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Telehealth Powered by Office 365

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Abstract

Did you know that the telemedicine concept was invented in the 1960s by NASA? Yes, to monitor astronauts’ health from Earth at NASA centers, NASA sent several test flights using animals attached to medical monitoring systems, which sent the animals’ biometric data to scientists on Earth via a telemetric link. The focus on the possible limitations of the human body forced NASA to take a technologically focused approach to telemedicine. In situations where a quick return to Earth was not possible, the ability to not only monitor biometric data, but also engage at least rudimentary guided medical treatment by non-physicians, was critical. The same concept applied to remote rural areas where medical help was not available to those who needed it urgently. As we say, necessity is the mother of all invention, and from this necessity was born telehealth. The US military started using telemedicine in the 1980s to combat several natural disasters and conflicts. The American Telemedicine Association (ATA) describes telemedicine as the use of medical information exchanged from one site to another via electronic communications to improve a patient’s clinical health status.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Andrew T. Simpson, “A Brief History of NASA’s Contributions to Telemedicine,” August 16, 2013 ( https://www.nasa.gov/content/a-brief-history-of-nasa-s-contributions-to-telemedicine/ )

  2. 2.

    Bill Siwicki, “New York Hospital Says Telehealth Helped Slash ER Wait Times, Enhance Care,” August 17,2017 ( http://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/new-york-hospitals-say-telehealth-helped-slash-er-wait-times-enhance-care )

  3. 3.

    James R Langabeer, II, Tiffany Champagne-Langabeer, Diaa Alqusairi, Junghyun Kim, Adria Jackson, David Persse, Michael Gonzalez, “Cost–benefit Analysis of Telehealth in Pre-hospital Care,” December 5, 2016 ( http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1357633X16680541 )

  4. 4.

    Eric Wicklund, “Telemedicine Helps SNFs Improve Patient Care, Curb Hospitalizations,” ( https://mhealthintelligence.com/news/telemedicine-helps-snfs-improve-patient-care-curb-hospitalizations )

  5. 5.

    Gage, D., “America’s Children Need Access to Pediatric Subspecialists,” American Academy of Pediatrics, accessed September 29, 2015; available at: http://www2.aap.org/visit/Sec5203FactSheet.pdf

  6. 6.

    James P. Marcin, et al., “Using Telemedicine to Provide Pediatric Subspecialty Care to Children with Special Health Care Needs in an Underserved Rural Community,” Pediatrics, Vol. 113, No. 1(2004): 1–6.

  7. 7.

    Andrew Broderick and David Lindeman, The Commonwealth Fund, Case Studies in Telehealth Adoption, January 2013.

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© 2018 Nidhish Dhru

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Dhru, N. (2018). Telehealth Powered by Office 365. In: Office 365 for Healthcare Professionals. Apress, Berkeley, CA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4842-3549-2_4

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