What is Telehealth?
Telehealth is the use of Assistive Technology for remote health monitoring for diagnosis and treatment of long term medical conditions such as:
- High blood pressure
- Diabetes
- Breathing problems (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease or COPD) and
- Heart problems.
People enter data such as blood pressure and blood glucose levels into a device.
This data is then transmitted to a clinical or non-clinical monitoring service where the patient’s health is monitored and any alerts addressed by the appropriate service.
Telehealth helps people to:
- Manage their condition
- Maintain and improve their health and well-being
- Live independently
- Improve their quality of life
- Avoid periods of illness
- Avoid unnecessary hospital visits and admissions.
The patient's role in understanding and managing their condition and care is key to achieving this.
Telehealth is not an emergency service.