Related Experiment Videos
Internet electronic mail: a tool for low-cost telemedicine
1Institute of Pathology, University of Udine, Italy. dellamea@dimi.uniud.it
Journal of Telemedicine and Telecare
|January 11, 2000
Summary
Electronic mail enables multimedia and secure message transfer, supporting store-and-forward telemedicine for remote consultations. This review covers email standards, multimedia/confidential messages, and applications, noting Internet limitations versus intranets.
Area of Science:
- Computer Science
- Medical Informatics
Background:
- Electronic mail (email) facilitates text, multimedia, and privacy-enhanced messaging.
- Store-and-forward telemedicine utilizes email for remote consultations, enhancing healthcare accessibility.
Purpose of the Study:
- To review Internet email standards for multimedia and confidential messages.
- To describe email-based telemedicine applications.
- To discuss performance limitations and solutions for Internet-based healthcare communication.
Main Methods:
- Review of Internet email communication protocols and message formats.
- Analysis of standards relevant to multimedia and privacy-enhanced email.
- Description of existing email-based telemedicine applications.
Main Results:
- Email supports diverse message types, including multimedia and secure transmissions.
- Email-based telemedicine applications are feasible for remote consultations.
- Internet connectivity presents challenges like variable quality of service and low bandwidth.
Conclusions:
- Email standards are adaptable for advanced messaging and telemedicine.
- Intranets offer guaranteed performance, overcoming Internet limitations for critical healthcare applications.
- Further development in email protocols could enhance telemedicine reliability.