E-Health, Telehealth and Telemedicine: History and Definitions

halksagligi-10-1-2024-kapak

Özge TONBULOĞLU ALTINERa , Seçil ÖZKANa

aGazi University Faculty of Medicine, Department of Public Health, Ankara, Türkiye

ABSTRACT
Today, the impact of digital technologies in the field of health is increasing rapidly. In order to adapt to the developing technologies and to make sense of the process, it is of great importance to understand the scope of the concepts in a comprehensive manner. The use of information technologies in health services is classified as eHealth, telehealth and telemedicine according to their scope. There is no consensus on when the terms telemedicine and telehealth were first used. However, while the term telemedicine was used more frequently in the early years, it is seen that the term telehealth was suggested as a more inclusive term than telemedicine in the following years. While telehealth is a more comprehensive set of telehealth services that are not necessarily related to the clinical field, telemedicine is a part of telehealth services related to the clinical field. The most comprehensive of these concepts, eHealth is defined by the World Health Organisation as the cost-effective and secure use of information and communication technologies in support of health and health-related fields. eHealth offers a potential for solving health problems, especially in situations where long distances or limited time and resources are encountered.
Keywords: Telemedicine; history; health; public health

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