Telemedicine as an Alternative Model for Delivering Healthcare Services: Preliminary Results of the MultiMED Project

According to the formal definition of the profile American association, the term of telemedicine involves the use of medical information sent between two or more sites via electronic communication means, having as an ultimate goal the improvement of patients’ clinical condition.
After already four decades of development and practical use of this diagnostic and treatment modality, with demonstrations in hospitals extending their remote healthcare services, the use of telemedicine extended rapidly, now being integrated in different current operations in hospitals, specialty departments, home care agencies, private practice offices, and also in different workplaces or residential sites, benefiting nowadays of a variety (constantly increasing) of applications and services using bi-directional video broadcasts, e-mail services, smart phones, wireless devices and other forms of telecommunication technology.