The Strategic Development and Application of Telemedicine

This paper reports the results of research commissioned by the UK Department of Health to investigate the provision of telemedicine throughout the United Kingdom and to make recommendations for its development and strategic application. The study shows that telemedicine in the UK is concentrated in about 25 major projects across eight clinical areas with dermatology, and accident and emergency as the major applications. Currently, most applications are in the acute sector or in academic departments associated with teaching hospitals. It concludes that telemedicine offers considerable opportunities for cost-effective healthcare in the UK but that it currently operates in a piecemeal and uncoordinated way. The main barriers to its uptake are the lack of strategic direction and a framework for development as well as the absence of a proper evaluation methodology. The adoption of telemedicine also raises important organisational issues which must be addressed if the techniques are to realise their obvious potential.