Information on telemedicine

Abstract

Although the practice of telemedicine is still not considered part of mainstream health care, there has been a steady growth in information about telemedicine since 1999. The increasing body of literature about telemedicine, the staying power of various telemedicine societies and Websites, and the growing number of well-attended conferences about telemedicine all attest that interest in and the practice of telemedicine worldwide are very much alive and well. Searching for information has also become easier with the advent of better and faster search engines, particularly Google. Nonetheless, many Websites are out of date and the semantic confusion between 'telemedicine' and other terms such as 'telehealth' means that considerable perseverance is required to sift the wheat from the chaff. There is a wide variety of both electronic and print resources that have proven to be reliable sources of information. These include: the Internet (Web), books and reports, journals and trade magazines, telemedicine societies and conferences. While telemedicine cannot yet be considered to be part of mainstream health care, it has become a more familiar part of health terminology worldwide.