A REVIEW OF ADOPTION OF TELEMEDICINE IN MIDDLE EAST COUNTRIES: TOWARD BUILDING IRAQI TELEMEDICINE FRAMEWORK

The purpose of this paper is to develop a framework which can sustain local conditions of developing countries. Design and implementation of sustainable telemedicine information systems is still a big challenge for most developing countries, despite of its wide usage in the developed countries. While various frameworks exist, not much of them have adequately addressed the issue of design for sustainability. This paper proposes an appropriate framework, which will guide telemedicine information systems designers on designing telemedicine systems that are sustainable in local conditions of developing countries. The proposed paper mainly works in the area of information systems design for sustainability, from a developing country perspective. The main factor for designing sustainable telemedicine information systems in developing countries were identified as the speed, ease to use and affordable. 1.1 OVERVIEW In this study, development of framework for telemedicine and the use of advanced telemedicine technologies are explained. Telemedicine is the use of modern telecommunications and information technologies for the provision of clinical care to individuals at a distance, and transmission of information to provide that care. Telemedicine can be used for decision making, remote sensing, and collaborative arrangements for the real-time management of patients at a distance. The use of telecommunications and information technologies in providing health services is determined. Telemedicine is described as combination of topics from the fields of telecommunication, medicine, and informatics. The medical systems infrastructure consisting of the equipment and processes used to acquire and present clinical information and to store and retrieve data are explained in details. The challenges existing in telemedicine development in different countries are given. Technological, political, and professional barriers in applications of telemedicine are defined. An investigation of telemedicine applications in various fields is presented, and enormous impact of telemedicine systems on the future of medicine is determined. In traditional information sharing, data is exchanged between a sender and a receiver. After the September 11 attack in New York, information technology grew popular as global information sharing among terrorists began.Electronic information sharing refers to electronic data exchanges achieved by using Information and Communications Technology (ICT) tools, such as the Internet, email, phone, and websites. With the increased amount of data transferred through information sharing, the decision-making process among policy makers are made more easy (1). Moreover, ICT is advantageous in that it significantly reduces the time, energy consumption, and cost for obtaining information (2). The clinical data warehouse is a place where healthcare providers can access the clinical data collected throughout the patient care process for research or management purposes (3). The organisation design of the captured data, which includes data modelling, and normalization, facilitates the measurement of the effectiveness of the treatment