Telemedicine: Its effects on health communication

    Authors

    J. Matusitz;G. M. Breen

    Comments

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    Abbreviated Journal Title

    Health Commun.

    Keywords

    DEVELOPING-COUNTRIES; MEDICINE; REQUIREMENTS; TECHNOLOGY; DISTANCE; REMOTE; Communication; Health Policy & Services

    Abstract

    This article analyzes telemedicine, the use of distant communication technologies within the context of clinical health care, and the effects it has on health communication. The main effect is that telemedicine has the capacity to substantially transform health care in both positive and negative ways and to radically modify personal face-to-face communication (Turner, 2003). This has tremendous implications for health communication scholars in that they can extend the telemedicine debate by integrating fresh insights into more acceptable approaches that will refine and humanize mediated channels of health communication. There are several key areas of telemedicine that need to be discussed (i.e., e-health services, clinical encounters, etc.), all of which are identified in this article. In addition to describing the past and current applications of telemedicine, this article provides a better understanding of unique needs, resources, problems, and opportunities germane to telemedicine services.

    Journal Title

    Health Communication

    Volume

    21

    Issue/Number

    1

    Publication Date

    1-1-2007

    Document Type

    Article

    Language

    English

    First Page

    73

    Last Page

    83

    WOS Identifier

    WOS:000246767900008

    ISSN

    1041-0236

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