Telemedicine Here it Comes

Telemedicine has been slow in its adoption and development in the United States, but it seems Britain has begun to really use it.

Using the system to manage chronic respiratory diseases, doctors in Carlisle have managed to reduce hospital stays for some patients from 10 days to 5.5 days.

The project involves giving telemedicine monitors to patients, thus allowing them to measure their own temperature, heart rate, breathing rate, electrocardiogram and blood pressure. These results are sent via a phone line to a secure server, where they are saved as an electronic patient record, which can then be accessed by doctors or nurses.

The system can monitor diseases such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, which currently costs the United Kingdom's National Health Service about $1.44 billion (818 million pounds) per year.

Although the system is costly, I would imagine that the savings of having to keep a patient for less time and also the reduced rate of readmission would far outnumber the $1.44 billion. The article goes on to say that the system is fairly easy to use, and how most patients do not mind the new technology (94% acceptance rate). I think and hope that this will eventually pick up more and more steam in the United States, perhaps in the next five years. It could dramatically change how rural healthcare and the increasing geriatric patient load could be approached. In my opinion, every doctor out there and every future doctor will be using telemedicine at some point soon.

Telemedicine slashes hospital stays [CNET]