Page 8 - Telehealth

FOREWORD

MIRTA ROSES PERIAGO

Director
Pan American Health Organization
Regional Office of the World Health Organization

In today’s global environment, governments of Latin America and the Caribbean and other
key sectors concerned with social welfare are acutely aware of the importance and critical
role that health plays in the development process. This awareness has underscored the
necessity to improve access to quality healthcare and to reduce the inequality gap present in
national health systems. Although significant improvements in the health status in the
Americas have been achieved in the past decades, new and complex challenges still confront
the Region. Investment in health is therefore central in advancing and sustaining the
development process and contributing to the well-being and quality of life of the Region’s
citizenry.

At the same time we witness that the scenario is becoming more complex and challenging, as
result of the increased mobility of citizens, both within and between countries, and the
expanding process of regional integration. The new models of health sector organization,
characterized by multiple public-private providers and contributors, have made the provision
of healthcare services multifaceted and have emphasized the urgent need for mechanisms to
facilitate equitable access to services, evidence-base technical information, and access to
historical personal health data, be it in urban or rural locations. Likewise, the international
dimensions of public health and its close links with the national and local situation demand
novel ways to deal with the recording, maintenance, and access to the health data of
individuals and population groups. This need was recognized in high-level international
meetings -- the Presidential Declaration of the 1998 Summit of the Americas and subsequent
international meetings held since then (Florianópolis Declaration by the representatives of
Latin American and Caribbean countries; Brasília Communiqué of the Presidents of South
America; Rio de Janeiro Declaration of the Intergovernmental Meeting on ICT for
Development; Declaration of the Rio Group; the Declaration of Santiago of the Rio Group and
the European Union Minister’s Meeting) emphasized the critical importance for the countries
of the Americas in having a common stake in improving access to and delivery of healthcare
through communications and information technology.

During the past decade, the convergence of multiple digital technologies, the increased
capacity and speed of modern computers, the ubiquity of telecommunications, and affordable
data processing and online access to mass data storage, have propelled the widespread
deployment of computerized information applications in service management, logistics of
patient and public health administration, direct patient care, and professional education.

Telehealth -- the use of medical information exchanged from one site to another via electronic
communications to support healthcare needs, for accessing knowledge by patients or care
providers, and for the purpose of improving patient services -- utilizes the power of such
information and communications technologies to transfer medical information for diagnosis,
therapy, education, and operational management. Telehealth has been shown to provide an
affordable mechanism for cost-effective care in a variety of settings. Most of the presently
deployed applications are, however, still based on a “hub and spoke” concept using
interacti ve video or store-and-forward technology over telecommunication links for
professional exchanges between providers, medical consultations, interpretation of medical
images, and second opinion. The information may include medical images, live two-way audio
and video, patient medical records, and a variety of output data originating from medical
devices.

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