What is Telehealth?

What are the benefits of Telehealth?

Where is telehealth today?

Where can telehealth go tomorrow?

Glossary of Telehealth Terms

What are the Benefits of Telehealth?

Telehealth can provide benefits to individual patients, family members or health care providers, and to community organizations, healthcare facilities, and governments. Examples of the benefits of telehealth are given below. 

• DIRECT AND INDIRECT BENEFITS 

• ECONOMIC BENEFITS

• IMMEDIATE AND LOCAL BENEFITS 

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 DIRECT AND INDIRECT BENEFITS

·        Improve the way patients and their families access information and learn

·        Result in improved health outcomes for patients

·        Empower consumers and communities by providing accessible health education and decision-making options

·        Improve the way healthcare providers deliver care, access information, and learn

·        Enhance recruitment and retention of healthcare providers in rural or remote areas

·        Lower healthcare costs, reduce travel, minimize time off work, and decrease patient waiting time

·        Decrease self-reported patient anxiety

·        Eliminate unnecessary repeat diagnostic procedures or tests

·        Improve and hasten early diagnostic capabilities

·        Improve administrative and communication capabilities

·        Improve emergency triage 

ECONOMIC BENEFITS

·        Job creation

·       Increased research and development investment

·        New business foci for existing and new companies, and

·       Increased international competitiveness at local, regional, national, and international levels. 

IMMEDIATE AND LOCAL BENEFITS

Through its close relationship with Calgary Health Region (CHR), the Telehealth Program has been serving Calgary’s citizens and communities since its inception, and will do so into the future.

Our initial activities, in collaboration with CHR, have shown that telehealth can provide benefits for communities, citizens, organizations and networks, and has the potential to positively impact health and health care.

This relationship also provides the Telehealth Program with important practical experience and perspective on how telehealth complements and interacts with the existing health care system and health care providers.

© 2002 Health Telematics Unit.
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We welcome your comments or questions.
Contact Judy Hunter at hunterj@ucalgary.ca