From teletraining to telehomecare - Design of mobile and multi-stream telehealth systems

Telehealth success relies on the ability of information and communication technologies (ICT) to maximize the quality of care provided remotely, i.e., providing diagnostics and treatments of the same quality compared to face-to-face or conventional means, and maximize the benefits for the patients, the clinicians and the system of care. Because of the specific nature of health-related processes, successful development of telehealth technologies must be driven by clinical and application needs that are not addressed by currently available ICT. In this paper, we present two telehealth systems developed in two different contexts, one for teletraining of surgical procedures, and one for telerehabilitation, and from which common requirements can be identified for the development of a more generic platform. This paper also situates where these systems are in relation to their stage of development and their assessment as telehealth technologies.