Telemedicine and teleradiology technologies and applications

Telemedicine and teleradiology hold the key for improving future health care delivery, In this paper we first review current communication and computer technologies used in telemedicine and teleradiology. Five examples in teleradiology applications are given including hospital-integrated picture archiving and communication systems, tele-neuro-imaging, telemammography, university consortium teleradiology service, and teleradiology for second opinion, Parameters important to teleradiology applications like costs, image quality, system reliability, and turn around time are considered. Data security is discussed, including patient confidentiality and image authenticity-which will be a major issue in future teleradiology applications.