2.5. Telemedicine
Telemedicine is the delivery of healthcare and the exchange of
healthcare information across distances. It is not a technology or a
separate or new branch of medicine Telemedicine services may be
classified on the basis of: (1) the interaction between the client and
the expert (e.g., real time or prerecorded), and (2) the type of
information being transmitted (e.g. text, audio, video). Telemedicine
mostly is used in industrialized countries, such as the USA, but there
is increasing interest in the use of telemedicine in developing
countries.11
Tele-medicine can be useful in rural areas, prisons and places where
access to health institutions is difficult. Additionally, telemedicine
activities are used in facilitating the access of disabled and elderly
individuals to health services, in facilitating access to services and
reducing costs, in responding to complaints or illness more quickly, in
preventing unnecessary crowding in health institutions, in providing
services to patients in the comfort area.12
Healthcare professionals where distance is a major factor the
information and communication technologies can be used for the exchange
of valid information for diagnosis, treatment and prevention of disease
and injuries, research and evaluation, and for the continuing
education.10
Tele-medicine applications can be used in various fields such as
tele-radiology, tele-dermatology, tele-pathology, tele-consultation,
tele-psychiatry, tele-home care and tele-surgery. The legislation for
telemedicine has been comprehensively announced in the Official Gazette
on February 10, 2022 with the Regulation On The Provision of Remote
Health Services No. 31746. .
The types of tele-medicine are outlined below.
Teleradiology – Although the perception of sharing radiological images
is quite high when it comes to tele-medicine, tele-radiology does not
mean image and information transmission between two centers, but rather
information sharing and working together in a network. Tele-radiology
application. It has a facilitating role as it has the task of fast
access to radiology reports and second expert opinion, consultation,
advanced health care, computer aided diagnosis, education and research
projects.13
Telepathology- It refers to the transfer of microscopic images by
telecommunication networks. In this application, the pathologist can see
the images through a monitor instead of a microscope
.13 Tele- dermatology – It is defined as providing
remote treatment and opinion on skin diseases and care by using
information technologies .13 Tele-dermatology provides
patients living in rural areas with the option of being treated without
going to distant centers.
Tele-psychiatry- It is stated that patients with psychological disorders
receive help from a psychologist or psychiatrist via telephone, e-mail,
internet, text message, and video conferencing.14
Tele-home care/health - It is defined as the instantaneous transmission
process of the patient’s vital signs (heart chart, sugar, blood
pressure, fever, pulse, skin color, oxygen saturation, etc.) to the
doctor or doctors via computer software program and smart phone
applications.15
2.6. Hospital Information Systems
Hospital information systems can be technically defined as a collection
of integrated systems that enable the decision support and communication
mechanism in the health institution to operate, while processing,
storing and transferring health data to relevant units.
With the effect of the rapid developments in today’s technology and the
increasing needs for the rapid processing of information, it reveals the
need for the most effective management and control of hospital
information systems which provide the highest quality health service to
the patients and to manage the resources in the most efficient way.16,17,18
The function of hospital information systems is to monitor all health
services provided in the hospital using computers and provide electronic
communications of patient health records, administrative and financial
data within the institution.19