Telemedicine: Good or bad and for whom?

Telemedicine or medical information exchanging from one site to another via electronic communication to improve a patient's health status offers new ways to deliver care, allows a remote diagnostic or a treatment plan. There is an increased trend towards the development of telemedicine because it is widely looked as a resource with the potential to revolutionize access to care. Major areas where telemedicine can be efficiently are: tele-consultation, tele-diagnostic, tele-treatment, tele-education, tele-training, tele-monitoring and tele-support. Some providers educate patients, offering clinical presentations of their capabilities. In cardiology tele-monitoring is very useful in patients with implantable devices. Beside of some incontestable advantage of telemedicine there are still many challenges and ethical issues to be solved. Sometimes so called “no touch” medicine can be risky, misleading and can generate wrong diagnostics and therapies. However telemedicine becomes part of our lives and its importance in health system's delivery will increase.