Preliminary Literature Review Assignment: Tele Health

Telehealth
Name
Institution
Telehealth
Technological advancements are increasingly on the rise and health is not left out. Telehealth, “using computing and telecommunication technology to provide health services from a distance”, is gaining importance. Using telehealth has greatly impacted the way medical services are offered. There is profound belief that telehealth could help in providing quality healthcare at a relatively cheaper price. In many countries, there is a relatively large gap in the provision of medical services between those staying in urban areas and those living in the rural areas. However, through telehealth, that gap can be bridged. The only impediment to successful implementation of telehealth is that doctors do not use the best implementation strategies they can employ to ensure they effectively use telehealth to improve the quality of healthcare in the rural areas.
When implemented well, telehealth can enhance the speed at which healthcare services are delivered and lower mortality rates when critical health issues are addressed in real time. Technologies like telehealth can improve the coordination and sharing of information among doctors, therefore ensuring that they are always informed and remain competitive.
Preliminary Literature Review
This section provides a peer review of selected research articles about telehealth. The section will provide a thorough summary of the articles, how the findings of the research encourage my proposal of implementing telehealth in medicine, the design of the research and the methods that were used.
Durrani, H., & Khoja, S. (2009). A systematic review of the use of telehealth in Asian countries. Journal of telemedicine and telecare, 15(4), 175-181.
The research was conducted in Asia and involved reviewing all journals and articles between June 1997 and June 2007. The articles reviewed were those that were related to telehealth applications in any Asian country between the periods. In total, the researchers reviewed 1504 articles and selected 109 to use in their research. The research established that developed countries like South Korea and Japan have been able to implement real-time telehealth technologies and it has enabled the doctors in those countries to make more informed decisions. However, health was relatively expensive in poorer Asian countries that were yet to fully implement telehealth. The research design was qualitative. The key search words that were used include telehealth, e-health, and telemedicine. Each article was reviewed by at least two reviewers.
Mishra, S. K., Kapoor, L., & Singh, I. P. (2009). Telemedicine in India: current scenario and the future. Telemedicine and e-Health, 15(6), 568-575.
The article looks at the history of telemedicine in India and tries to determine what the future of telemedicine is in India. The study covers materials and methods that were used in the research results, discussion of the results, and the conclusions. The findings of the study affirmed what this study is seeking to prove. The authors established that telemedicine technology is the way to go to enhance quality healthcare. Most importantly, the authors established that using telemedicine in India has enabled health professionals to reach people in remote areas thus enabling the provision of health services for all. This was also a qualitative research. The researchers reviewed various publications dealing with telehealth in India and visited the websites of several government organizations and large medical institutions in India.
Ferdous, A. M. (2017). Scopes and challenges of implementing Telemedicine in a developing country like Bangladesh (Master's thesis, UiT Norges arktiske universitet)
The research covers the concept of telemedicine and why it is hard for developing countries to effectively implement the technology. It provides good background information on telemedicine and a comprehensive literature review. The goal of the study was to determine how best telemedicine concept could be applied in the developing countries. The research is relevant to my study because it outlines some of the strategies that can help telehealth work. The study further outlines the challenges and these will be important in this study in coming up with the strategies for effectively implementing telehealth. In the study, qualitative research method was used with the main aim of understanding the main reasons for the trends in telehealth.
Ostojic, V., Cvoriscec, B., Ostojic, S. B., Reznikoff, D., Stipic-Markovic, A., & Tudjman, Z. (2005). Improving asthma control through telemedicine: a study of short-message service. Telemedicine Journal & E-Health, 11(1), 28-35
The study examines how telemedicine can be used to improve asthma control. The study was conducted with all subjects receiving asthma treatment through telemedicine. The researchers established that telemedicine administered through SMS could best help to treat cases of asthma. More specifically, telephone was used to transmit sounds of breath. The study was conducted involving a population of 16 asthma patients between the ages of 18 to 30. The patients in the study were divided into the random group or the SMS study group. Through telemedicine, the SMS group patients were able to receive weekly instructions on how best they could handle their asthma situation. As a result, they managed to benefit the most.
Preston, J., Brown, F. W., & Hartley, B. (1992). Using telemedicine to improve health care in distant areas. Psychiatric Services, 43(1), 25-32.
The article advocates for using telemedicine to improve health in distant locations especially remote areas. The findings of the authors of the article were that telemedicine led to reduction of costs and improvement of quality, an important issue that this study took into consideration. The article gave a thorough overview of the telemedicine technology including the background of telecommunication and the library of telemedicine. Additionally, the article outlined the future research issues related to telehealth. The overall finding of the article was that telehealth was important in cutting costs and improving quality, something that this study sought to establish. Therefore, this study will be important in advancing the study that I seek to undertake.
Kaplan, W. A. (2006). Can the ubiquitous power of mobile phones be used to improve health outcomes in developing countries?. Globalization and health, 2(1), 9
The article addressed the issue of whether mobile phones could be used to improve the quality of health care in the developing countries. The study took into cognizance the fact that some people never appreciate the value that mobile applications add to the improvement of the quality of healthcare. The study established that it would be possible soon enough to resolve that information technology could be a barrier to health development because every pointer towards information technology advancing the promotion of the quality of health. The results of the study never refuted or appro...