Expansion of Telemedicine Services: Telepharmacy, Telestroke, Teledialysis, Tele-Emergency Medicine

Abstract

As more specialized care gets centralized in centers of excellence, patients admitted to rural hospitals may be at a disadvantage at the time of accessing expertise or receiving advanced care. In this setting, telemedicine models provide a justification to equalize care across different levels. The diversity in telemedicine services is vast and is expanding. Even with all the subsets of telemedicine, including telepharmacy, telestroke, teledialysis, and tele-emergency medicine, the reasons for providing services and associated limitations are similar. However, there is a lack of empirical research including best practices and resultant outcomes for these subsets of telemedicine models.

Keywords: Critical care; Intensive care unit; Pharmaceutical care; Telemedicine; Telepharmacy; Telestroke.