Information issues in telemedicine systems

This paper examines the use of the Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) for telemedicine from the computer scientist's point of view. As increased bandwidth becomes available at reasonable cost, it becomes possible to employ graphical user interfaces in telemedicine systems. This means that human-computer interaction (HCI) techniques can be applied to the interface design. This paper describes some of these as applied to telemedicine by other authors. HCI techniques can be considered to be part of the development process of telemedicine systems. An integrated, multimedia-based telemedicine system which emulated the concept of a hospital information system would have many benefits, such as a consistent user interface with appropriate clinical metaphors, integrated patient records with facilities to store graphical information, and remote access. Telemedicine has much to offer in terms of providing higher standards of patient care through improved response times by clinicians who have the required information immediately available. The patient also benefits from convenience factors, such as being able to consult locally a remote specialist.