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Applications of e-Health Technologies.
There are clinical and non-clinical uses of eHealth technologies.
Clinical Applications of eHealth technologies (Telemedicine) include:
Clinical eHealth Clinical services consisting of remote patient
evaluation, treatment and monitoring by digital equipment. These include
specialist referral services, primary remote diagnostic visits and
remote patient monitoring.
Specialist referral services: involve a general medical practitioner in
a remote location consulting a specialist or a specialist consulting
another specialist for second opinion. This may involve a patient being
evaluated by a specialist over a live, remote consult or the
transmission of diagnostic images and/or video along with patient data
to a specialist for viewing later.
Almost 50 different medical subspecialties have successfully used
telemedicine. Radiology through the use of teleradiology continues to
make the greatest use of telemedicine with patients’ radiological images
from remote sites interpreted by Radiologists. Other applications of
telemedicine include telecardiology, telepathology, teledermatology and
telepsychiatry amongst others.
Teleradiology is the electronic transmission of patient radiological
images from one location to another for the interpretation and / or
consultation. Teleradiology allow prompt interpretation of radiologic
examinations and give greater access to consultations and improved
continuing medical education.
Primary Remote Diagnostic Visits: whereby devices examine a patient and
a connected physician residing in another location virtually examines
and treats a patient. This can play a crucial role in a developing
country like Nigeria with shortage of health care professionals.
Remote patient monitoring : devices remotely collect and send data from
homebound patients to a monitoring station for interpretation. The data
may include patient’s vital signs, ECG and blood glucose. Such services
can supplement the use of home visiting nurses .
e-Prescriptions : It replaces handwritten paper orders by doctors. It
allows physicians to use a computer or a personal digital assistant(PDA)
to electronically transmit a prescription to a pharmacy selected by the
patient. After placing the electronic order, the system checks for the
patient’s drug history including allergies, interactions with other
prescriptions and whether the drug is covered by the patient’s insurance
by searching the pharmacy and health plan databases. The e-prescription
is convenient to pharmacies due to automatic creation and storage of
electronic records of the prescription. The e-prescription improves drug
safety by decreasing the amount of prescription errors and subsequently
reduces avoidable health care costs.
e- Medical Records (EMR): The collection, storage, indexing,
communication and access to patient data. It enables easy communication
of patient data between health care providers and a greater access to a
wide variety of the patient’s comprehensive health information. The
health care provider can access this data to get more complete
information of the patient’s health in elective and emergency cases.
Evidence Based Medicine: This system provides medical information on
appropriate treatment under certain patient conditions. It enables the
healthcare professional to determine whether a patient’s diagnosis and
management are in line with current medical research.
Virtual healthcare teams: They consist of teams of health care providers
who collaborate and share medical information on patients for intramural
care, through electronic equipment like videoconferencing equipment.
Other clinical applications of eHealth include health advice by
telephone in emergent cases (teletriage) and advice on prevention of
diseases, and promotion of good health by patient monitoring and
follow-up.
Previous
on
eHealth and Telemedicine in Nigeria - 1
By
Dr Osbert
Egiebor, MD, FAAP, FACR.
Dr O. O. Egiebor
is a Nigerian
Physician practicing in the United States of America. He performs
regular voluntary medical missions in Nigeria.
He is actively involved in the establishment of Lincoln Advanced
Radiology & Diagnostic Medical Centre in Benin City, Nigeria. The
project is being undertaken by Nigerian Physicians in the United States
in order to improve the standard of healthcare and medical education in
Nigeria. The centre will serve as a teaching facility for Nigerian
Physicians and medical students.
What
Do you Have to Say? Post
Your Comments about this article Here:
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March 6, 2011
Dr Osita Okonkwo in Kaduna says:
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This to my view is the future of the Nigerian health system
going forward. The fact that Nigeria is a populous country whose
vast population in the rural areas have limited provides a great
opportunity for the use of such technologies. Many Nigerian
doctors would pretty much want to be part of this development.
Efforts should be made to share this knowledge, as well with our
policy makers and relevant institutions to see to its
actualization. If needed, I would be available to participate.
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October 12, 2008
Mohammed Tahir.
PACS Manager in Saudi Arabia National Guard Hospitals in Jeddah says:
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Re-National Space Research and Development Agency NASRDA
This is a good start up for telemedicine in Nigeria. We should
try not to have a white elephant project- by enriching few who
shout loud about telemedicine. I am trying to see how viable to
establish a teleradiology service in Nigeria but due to lack of
broad band connectivity and constant power in the rural areas,
made me to postpone the project at the moment.
But if NASRDA can come in and provide the connectivity that will
be great.
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August 29, 2008
Dr . Joseph Adebola
of the Society for Telemedicine & eHealth in Nigeria
says:
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Well done Dr Osbert Egiebor we at the Society for Telemedicine &
eHealth in Nigeria a national representative body of the
International Society r Telemedicine & eHealth based in
Switzerland have been, since our inception trying to change the
mind set of our health care givers in Nigeria by the
introduction of Telemedicine and eHealth in the Nigerian medical
community through conferences workshop trainings and seminars.
We were pushed for the creation of Telemedicine unit in the
Federal Ministry of Health because we realized as a non-
for-profit organization made up of professionals our powers were
limited we needed the Federal Government to start thing in that
direction of eHealth, anyway that has not deterred us from
organizing/hosting our capacity building workshops seminars and
conferences at the moment, we are about to hold our second
edition of PACTe 2008- Pan African Conference on Telemedicine
and eHealth in Abuja Nigeria on the 18th 19th of September 2008
with theme eHealth in Low Resource Settings What Works and What
does not International renowned Speakers in Telemedicine &
eHealth from Germany ,UK, Malaysia, Uganda etc will be
delivering papers on those days and participants from some
African countries we wish we could contact Dr Osbert Egiebor to
do a presentation . We need all stake holders in this, every
meaningful contributions is encouraged and welcomed. Please come
join us make Nigerian health sector better come participate in
PACTe 2008.
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August 28, 2008
Ebele Onwuagbaizu of The
Bridge Clinic Lagos, Nigeria
says:
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I believe this could be achieved here in Nigeria despite the
challenges facing our health care delivery. All that is required
is collaborative efforts both from Private to Federal health
facilities all over Nigeria.
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August 13, 2008
Kunle Adeyeye of Lagos
says:
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Actually, I was hoping to read about the scope of application of
ehealth and telemedicine in the Nigerian healthcare delivery
system. This article gives a concise description of these
concepts in general. But what is the Nigerian experience so
far?
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