The Impact of New Wireless Telecommunication Systems on Home Telecare

Wireless telemedicine is a new area. It involves the integration of mobile telecommunication and multimedia technologies for health-care':", Current third-generation cellular telephones allow nurses to roam while remaining in contact with the service, and this will enable them to extend existing clinical services and health-care facilities to areas that were not possible using telemedical systems and services based on land lines". Wireless technologies will provide the mobile patients and the normal working users with choices that will make it easier for them to obtain clinical attention and advice, when and where it is required, regardless of any geographical barriers or mobility constraints. The concept of including data and high-speed services integrated with voice services Is emerging as one of the main points of the future citizencentred health-care systems. These methodologies will support the development of new medical care delivery systems in the twenty-first century'. . The potential benefits of new wireless mobile telemedicine systems include: