Telemedicine is a huge resource for developing countries where there are massive infrastructure and accessibility constraints. Frequently, telemedicine makes for the only viable way to issue prognoses and even prescriptions to people in less developed areas who lack access to proper medical supervision. However, the uptake of telemedicine in developing countries such as Mexico, a country which is right beside developed US states like New Mexico, Arizona and others, has been slow at rife with problems. Here are a few that are stalling progress.
Lacking Support From Official Bodies
Medicine is also an area in which people search frequently for some sort of professional validation before committing to any sort of real plan of medical action. It is subsequently a huge issue for telemedicine if the professionals giving the advice are not supported by an official body. Advice is less likely to be heeded and doubts in the system as a whole grow as a result of the lack of validation.
Policy Problems
Implementation of telemedicine necessarily requires the full support of governmental policy, or else bureaucracy will hold the whole process up. Medicine is a highly regulated practice since the stakes of the whole operation can be so high. Policy regulations need to be adapted to help the spread and efficiency of telemedicine, or else it gets thwarted so easily.
Technology Isn’t Optimized
Technology has pushed on massively in the last ten years with advancements left, right and center. However, this doesn’t necessarily mean that there is technology in place specifically of use to the telemedicine field. Databanks and call centre style phone communication isn’t necessarily in place for telemedical professionals. What is more, with so much left up to the telemedicine professionals themselves there isn’t the support system in place to solve technical areas as they arise with a huge amount left up to chance and pure availability of technicians at a certain time. With the urgency of medicine, this is often not good enough.
Depleted Representation
Telemedicine has the potential to be a huge and civilization changing curve if capitalized upon with the requisite enthusiasm. But realizing that this is the case and believing it to be true with the right level of enthusiasm and planning is actually a difficult area to promote. There aren’t enough respected and well-established authorities championing the whole concept to the people who can benefit from it or who can help to implement it to really begin the process of spreading the news and getting it going. The confidence that the programs can work and can be an amazing alternative to traditional medicinal practices is absolutely vital to the survival and propagation of the idea throughout developing countries and the blossoming of this alternate form.
Internet Connectivity Issues
It’s a pretty obvious point to make but if your telemedical service is conducted over the internet, then you’re going to need internet connection to continue your work. It is quite often the case that developing countries don’t have this available to them. “Internet connectivity can be patchy at best in a lot of developing countries. For a rigorous telemedicine network it’s really important that there is stable connectivity, 24/7” warns Joel Schneider, medicine blogger at Buy assignment service. Before this is addressed some countries simply can’t develop their telemedical field.
Conclusion
Telemedicine is such a vital alternate to traditional medical practices in developing countries and would seem like an obvious option for pursual in countries all across the globe. However, there are problems as we learnt above. The problems, more often than not, relate to infrastructure and problems that connect directly with the status of the countries in which it is needed most: legitimacy, championing of the idea and technical solutions are all needed to maintain the progress and effectiveness of this tool. Sadly, until this is solved there will likely be a big halt in progression.
Nora Mork is a tech project manager at Essayroo. She helps businesses make effective decisions and shares her experience in online magazines and blogs.