Healthcare Informatics Resources

In an era with a shortage of nurses and primary care providers in rural areas, telemedicine is a innovative way to reach out to and underserved population. Within the umbrella of telemedicine, we also have telecardiology specifically, which is a new concept for most. However, the first major use of telecardiolgy was in 1975 in India where EKG’s were sent via phone lines for evaluation. In North Carolina many patients must travel hours to reach a city equipped to manage their cardiac disease. This creates physical and often times financial strain on the patients resulting in lack of follow up care.

This is where modern health care and brilliantly engineered cardiac devices come into play. Patients can now send information via their pacemakers or internal cardiac defibrillators (ICD) directly to their physician for evaluation, all of which is done over phone or internet. The physician can monitor heart rate, rhythm changes, or see if their ICD has implemented a shock. The physician can then change settings on their pacemaker or ICD from a computer that will better help the patient’s cardiac arrhyhmias. Medications can also be prescribed or changed based the transmitted data. This is a major benefit for patients who live far from their physician’s hospital or office.

I get excited to think how modern medicine will continue to grow and how it will continue to benefit disadvantaged patients.

Tags: Healthcare Informatics, Healthcare Informatics Resources, Healthcare Informatics Telecardiology

This entry was posted on August 16, 2010 at 7:00 pm and is filed under Telemedicine. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.