The first known example of a medical record transfer occurred in Pennsylvania in when radiology images were sent 24 miles between two towns over telephone lines. Today, we think nothing of sending data from place to place, but at the time the ability to get the expertise of a physician in another location was a significant breakthrough.
Building on this idea, a Canadian doctor engineered a teleradiology system for use in the Montreal area. Another breakthrough occurred when clinicians at the University of Nebraska pioneered the use of video for healthcare purposes in They set up two-way television transmission to send information to medical students across campus.
In they used the technology to perform video consultations with patients and doctors at a state hospital. Telemedicine turned out to be an ideal solution in rural areas with limited access to healthcare. The first major instance of telecommunications for medical purposes comes about a decade later, when 15, miles of telegraph cable was laid during the Civil War.
The telegraph made remote wartime communication possible. It was used to order medical supplies and transmit casualty reports.
The tech was so integrated that telegraph wagons commonly idled right behind the frontline, sending and receiving information from the battlefield as needed.
In , Alexander Graham Bell was awarded a patent for his telephone and the rest, as they say, is history. This was a monumental step in remote communication, one which medical professionals quickly adopted.
Articles from a late 19th-century medical journal report the use of the telephone to cut down on unnecessary office visits as early as The telephone allowed doctors to consult with their peers as well, enriching the larger healthcare community. Radio communication saw its beginnings at the turn of the century , and was still a developing technology during the early s. One of the first telehealth efforts that incorporated radio communication came out of Australia in Reverend John Flynn founded the Aerial Medical Service AMS , which used the telegraph, radio and airplanes to deliver treatment to remote areas of the country.
Doctors consulted and diagnosed patients using a combination of telegraph and radio communication. Then, the service flew a qualified health professional to the patient to provide any necessary care. The AMS received international attention and is considered to be the first organization to address limited geographical access to healthcare with telecommunications technology.
Fast forward a few decades and radio communication was commonplace all over the world. By the time of the Korean and Vietnam conflicts, the US military relied heavily on telemedicine via radio to dispatch medical teams and helicopters. The invention of the television made visual telecommunications a realit y , which proved to be a valuable tool for early telemedicine practitioners. By the mid s, the Nebraska Psychiatric Institute was using closed-circuit television to remotely monitor patients.
By , the institute was providing group therapy and long-term therapy, consultation-liaison psychiatry, and medical student training at Norfolk State Hospital.
In , the two locations established their first interactive, two-way video link , negating the miles between them. Stanford medical students Pelu Tran and Ian Shakil co-founded Augmedix, a digital health startup that uses Google Glass to automatically transcribe medical records during a patient exam.
Concepts like this, which may seem fantastical to physicians now, will someday be commonplace — just like how modern telemedicine seemed an outlandish idea in Both private and government-owned research firms invest heavily in telemedicine, so the technology develops almost faster than physicians can keep up.
What will telemedicine look like in ? We can only imagine. Request a demo for further insight. History of Telemedicine The now and future of healthcare. Early Fantasies in Telemedicine History In the early s, radio revolutionized communication. Technology at Work So, when did telehealth really start? But this is just one, albeit huge example of the mainstreaming of telehealth. As a milestone, it signaled to the wider healthcare community that telehealth is both a legitimate form of patient care and a secure technology.
The benefits of virtual visits for patients are that they reduce the burden of travel and time off work. Too, these visits provide care in regions where no clinician is located, expanding access to care. For clinicians, telemedicine offers a way to stretch the bottom line while still providing the best care to any selected population. Today, after more than five decades, telehealth has become an accepted part of the majority of health systems across the United States.
This proven, established technology is an important part of the future state of healthcare both in the United States and abroad. Contact us to find out more. Find out how you can be featured by clicking here. Using television to transmit patient data in diagnostic radiology was one of the first applications in telemedicine, but some of the other early efforts at telehealth included : Using coaxial cable to transmit telefluoroscopic examinations. Ship-to-shore transmissions of EKG and x-ray data.
Using voice radio channels to transmit EKG rhythms from a remote location to a hospital. Using an interactive television microwave link to transmit voice, EKG, microscopy, and other clinical data.
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