TELEMEDICINE - THE CURRENT STATE-OF-THE-ART

Telemedicine is a major new development and has great potential for im proving health care delivery. There is a great deal of telemedicine ac tivity around the world but as yet little scientific proof of its cost -effectiveness. Irrespective of this, certain telemedicine application s-for example teleradiology-have become major commercial successes, es pecially in the USA. Other applications, such as telepathology, remain the subject of research effort. Teleconsulting applications lie betwe en these two extremes. Having become technically and economically feas ible, telemedicine now deserves proper investigation.