Trends and Prospects of Telemedicine

Recent development in telecommunication and information technologies came up with several technology options for telemedicine applications in hospitals and for medics for quality healthcare to patients. The research trends therefore need to be addressed for the proper deployment of technologies in a clinical setting or in a telemedicine environment with the adaptive compromise of technology and suitability. In this chapter, along with a description of the research trends and system design issues concerned with telemedicine, a mobile telemedicine system architecture and design have been proposed. Other current telemedicine technology options and prospects and challenges of future research in this emerging area are also described to indicate the possible future research challenges. Research in telemedicine is a future to provide improved and quality access to the healthcare professionals and patients. Therefore, developing telemedicine systems with state-of-the-art technologies is of paramount importance and hence, this chapter would link up an important step in system analysis and design perspective to this evolving research arena.