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Telemedicine as a Means to an End, Not an End in Itself
Telemedicine (TM)—the management of disease at a distance—has potential usefulness for patients with advanced respiratory disease. Underscoring this potential is the dramatic expansion of its applications in clinical medicine. However, since clinical studies testing this intervention often provide h...
Autores principales: | , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
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MDPI
2022
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8777880/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35054515 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/life12010122 |
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author | Vitacca, Michele Scalvini, Simonetta |
author_facet | Vitacca, Michele Scalvini, Simonetta |
author_sort | Vitacca, Michele |
collection | PubMed |
description | Telemedicine (TM)—the management of disease at a distance—has potential usefulness for patients with advanced respiratory disease. Underscoring this potential is the dramatic expansion of its applications in clinical medicine. However, since clinical studies testing this intervention often provide heterogeneous results, its role in the medical management of respiratory disorders remains inconclusive. A major problem in establishing TM’s effectiveness is that it is not a single intervention; rather, it includes a number of divergent diagnostic and therapeutic modalities—and each must be tested separately. Reflecting the discord between the need for further documentation of its approaches and effectiveness and its rapid utilization without this needed information, a major challenge is the lack of international guidelines for its integration, regulation, operational plans, and guidance for professionals. Tailored TM, with increased flexibility to address differing healthcare contexts, has the potential to improve access to and quality of services while reducing costs and direct input by health professionals. We should view TM as a tool to aid healthcare professionals in managing their patients with respiratory diseases rather than as a stand-alone substitute to traditional medical care. As such, TM is a means rather than an end. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-8777880 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2022 |
publisher | MDPI |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-87778802022-01-22 Telemedicine as a Means to an End, Not an End in Itself Vitacca, Michele Scalvini, Simonetta Life (Basel) Communication Telemedicine (TM)—the management of disease at a distance—has potential usefulness for patients with advanced respiratory disease. Underscoring this potential is the dramatic expansion of its applications in clinical medicine. However, since clinical studies testing this intervention often provide heterogeneous results, its role in the medical management of respiratory disorders remains inconclusive. A major problem in establishing TM’s effectiveness is that it is not a single intervention; rather, it includes a number of divergent diagnostic and therapeutic modalities—and each must be tested separately. Reflecting the discord between the need for further documentation of its approaches and effectiveness and its rapid utilization without this needed information, a major challenge is the lack of international guidelines for its integration, regulation, operational plans, and guidance for professionals. Tailored TM, with increased flexibility to address differing healthcare contexts, has the potential to improve access to and quality of services while reducing costs and direct input by health professionals. We should view TM as a tool to aid healthcare professionals in managing their patients with respiratory diseases rather than as a stand-alone substitute to traditional medical care. As such, TM is a means rather than an end. MDPI 2022-01-15 /pmc/articles/PMC8777880/ /pubmed/35054515 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/life12010122 Text en © 2022 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). |
spellingShingle | Communication Vitacca, Michele Scalvini, Simonetta Telemedicine as a Means to an End, Not an End in Itself |
title | Telemedicine as a Means to an End, Not an End in Itself |
title_full | Telemedicine as a Means to an End, Not an End in Itself |
title_fullStr | Telemedicine as a Means to an End, Not an End in Itself |
title_full_unstemmed | Telemedicine as a Means to an End, Not an End in Itself |
title_short | Telemedicine as a Means to an End, Not an End in Itself |
title_sort | telemedicine as a means to an end, not an end in itself |
topic | Communication |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8777880/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35054515 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/life12010122 |
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