Telemedicine in Norway : status and the road ahead / Terje Blomberg [and others].

  • Norway. Sosial- og Helsedepartementet.
Date:
1999
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Telemedicine in Norway : status and the road ahead / Terje Blomberg [and others]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    2.2.2 Dimension 2: Responsibility for implementation Telemedicine has an impact on a number of aspects of the health service. These can be collectively termed non-medical factors. Telemedicine impacts upon the organisation, administration and finances of the health service. As a result the lines of responsibility become unclear. It is therefore essential to delineate the responsibilities of the various players and between the various levels of administration. 3 Introduction This chapter examines the foundations and preconditions for current policy on IT and telemedicine. A basic precondition is that IT and telemedicine should be viewed as means of achieving pre-defined goals. They should not be regarded as goals in themselves. 3.1 Definition and areas of application of telemedicine Telemedicine can be defined as follows: Rapid access to shared and remote medical expertise by means of telecommunications and information technologies, no matter where the patient or relevant information is located. This definition is taken from the EU Commission's programme Advanced Informatics in Medicine. Telemedicine is not a new medical discipline, but rather a set of communication services that enable medical resources to be utilised in a new and better way. To date telemedicine in Norway - particularly in Tromsg - has largely comprised telemedicine in the sense of remote consultations and remote diagnoses using sound/picture communications, with the patient and doctor both being present at the same time. In this type of communication a doctor or other health worker is usually present with the patient in a doctor's office or at a local/central hospital. From here they communicate with a specialist who gives a diagnosis or provides guidance on further treatment of the patient. Regular services are in operation in the fields of dermatology, ear, nose and throat, cardiology, pathology and psychiatry. As a method telemedicine compensates for distance. At present a number of trials are being conducted in which patient information is transferred electronically as a basis for diagnosis and treatment. The information is sent to the recipient doctor/technical personnel in the form of a message which may contain attachments consisting of text, images, video etc. These electronic documents are then processed and answered within an agreed period of time. Consultations at which the doctor(s) and patient do not need to be present at the same time are easier to arrange and coordinate. Furthermore, the equipment and transmission capacity requirements are more modest because the time factor is, in theory, of secondary or minor importance. In theory this form of communication is the same as the system used at present for transferring form-based information: laboratory results, medical notes, referrals, prescriptions etc. The medical, economic and legal aspects of such services (EDI/multi-media based telemedicine) have not as yet been defined in any detail. The Internet is expected to become an important technology for telemedical services. The primary health service and, where applicable, hospitals will be able to invite tenders for the appropriate diagnostic services and service suppliers will be able to retrieve the appropriate documents from the network of the primary doctor or hospital. These solutions will need to be tested in development projects.