Quality in Telemedicine Services

Telemedicine refers to the delivery and provision of health care and consultative services to individual patients and the transmission of information related to care, over distance, using telecommunications technologies.Quality of service is a critical determinant of telemedicine performance. In addition, it can also be a critical factor in determining long-term viability of a telemedicine service provider. Although the term “quality assurance” was, at first, the main term for the experts to deal with, concepts such as “total quality management” and “continuous quality improvement” have come forth and are often used interchangeably. It is crystal clear that telemedicine services should meet the international quality requirements in order to accomplish quality assurance in healthcare provision. Technology advances have brought forward new and evolved services and technical infrastructure that promote and enhance quality healthcare services, such as telepresence and wearable technology. Nevertheless, there are several obstacles in telemedicine performance that need to be resolved.