Perspectives of telemedicine as an alternative for health care in Honduras

Abstract

Telemedicine has already proven to have multiple advantages for delivering timely up-to-date health care in industrialized countries by its educational as well as clinical purposes. There is a growing interest in Telemedicine apparently related to two reasons: a potential to improve quality of health care and a reduction in its costs. There have been several pilot studies on the feasibility of telemedicine in Central America and Latin America, but the use of this technology is uncommon. One of the most used applications used is teleradiology. The first experiences that we have had in Honduras are promising and have demonstrated the viability of establishing networks of telemedicine that connect health personnel from urban and rural areas. The integration of timely information and with this new health care technology could significantly reduce costs as well as increase access to specialty and subspecialty care to a larger population. Telemedicine is an innovative and efficient tool in the education of health personnel through virtual teleconferences or subspecialty teleconsultation with experts at home or abroad.