What is Telehealth?

What is telehealth?
Telehealth is the use of electronic information and telecommunication technologies to support long-distance clinical health care, patient and professional health-related education, public health and health administration. Telemedicine represents a valuable resource for delivering health-related services to remote, underserved areas, providing greater access to health care for consumers and health professionals.

How is telehealth delivered?
Telehealth primarily uses videoconferencing equipment. This is an interactive technology that enables patients and health care providers at distant sites to interact "face-to-face".

An alternative to real-time telehealth is called "store-and-forward", in which clinical information is sent (like email) to a provider at a distant site for their evaluation. This does not allow for a dialogue between the patient and provider.