The untapped potential of Telehealth

The people of Malaysia generally enjoy a high standard of health. This is l argely attributed to the comprehensive range of health services provided by the Government and the private sector at affordable costs. However. there are changing trends that now seriously challenge this status quo. The chang ing population structure, lifestyle, disease patterns and globalization are causing healthcare costs to rise. New and innovative ways will have to be devised to further improve the health status and at the same time contain c osts. Information and Communication Technology (ICT) presents unprecedented opportunities to help the health sector in Malaysia reinvent itself and tr ansform the way health and healthcare is managed and delivered in the futur e. Malaysia's Telehealth initiative under the Multimedia Super Corridor(MSC ) project is designed to realize Malaysia's health vision and goals and mee t future health challenges, Multimedia and Internet technology will be full y harnessed to deploy services that will shift the emphasis from episodic m anagement of illness to proactive promotion of lift long wellness and disea se prevention. Health information content and interactive applications will engage the people to work as partners of health with healthcare profession als in maintaining their own health or managing their illnesses. (C) 2001 E lsevier Science Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.