Medical care from space: Telemedicine

'Telemedicine' can be defined in various ways, but the underlying concept is based on the simple fact that, thanks to modern telecommunications links, diagnostic and therapeutic medical information can be passed between patient and doctor without either of them having to travel. Initially and for quite a long period, voice communication, via telephone or radio, was used to solicit the opinion of a doctor in the case of an emergency, but the potential of Telemedicine was boosted dramatically by the widespread introduction of modern information and communication technology (ICT) into the healthcare sector. Today we are at the point where the boundary separating Telemedicine and medical ICT is somewhat blurred. The prospect of using satellite communications technologies and associated connectivity services to support even wider application of the benefits of Telemedicine was the reason why ESA began actively pursuing activities in this challenging domain back in 1996.