Telemedicine is described as the use of telecommunication and information tech-nology to remotely offer healthcare services (Wootton, 2001). It entails the trans-mission of medical information and services via the internet, such as video con-ferencing, remote monitoring, and mobile health applications (Hameed et al., 2021). Telemedicine’s major goal is to enhance access to treatment and boost the efficiency of healthcare delivery, especially for patients in distant and under-served regions (Hailey et al., 2002). Prof. Klaus Schwab, who issued a call for smart, efficient, and creative solutions (Roy, 2020), emphasized the significance of technology in driving innovation and improving healthcare delivery through telemedicine. Collaboration and multidisciplinary methods are expected to result in game-changing discoveries and solutions in the healthcare sector.
1.1 THE FUTURE OF TELEMEDICINE
Telemedicine may take many different forms, such as teleconsultations, remote patient moni-toring, and virtual care (Vanagas et al., 2018; Zaman et al., 2022). A healthcare physician and a patient meet via video conference or phone conversation to discuss medical issues and treatment choices during teleconsultations. Remote patient monitoring entails using wearable gadgets or other medical equipment, as well as ordinary cellphones, to gather and communicate data about a patient’s health to a healthcare practitioner for analysis. Virtual care refers to a variety of remote healthcare services, such as teleconsultations, remote patient monitoring, and online health information resources (Rajda and Paz, 2020). Telemedicine is viewed as a critical answer to many difficulties confronting the healthcare sector, including rising healthcare costs and the need to increase access to treatment in rural and disadvantaged areas. Telemedicine can play an increasingly impor-tant role in the delivery of healthcare services in the future, thanks to the fast development of technology (Ekeland et al., 2010).
The COVID-19 pandemic has underlined the crucial role that telemedicine may play in healthcare delivery (Aslan and Ata¸sen, 2021). With the increased requirement for social distance and fewer in-person visits to healthcare institu-tions, telemedicine has become an increasingly significant technique for deliver-ing care to patients while limiting the transmission of the virus (El-Sherif et al., 2022). The telemedicine’s impact in the post-COVID-19 world may be observed in many major areas:
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Improving access to care: Telemedicine has assisted in overcoming many of the hurdles to care that existed before to the epidemic, including as distance, time, and expense. Telemedicine has made it simpler for patients to obtain the treatment they require by allowing them to interact with healthcare practitioners remotely, regardless of their location.
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Telemedicine has played a major impact in decreasing the transmission of COVID-19 and other infectious illnesses, according to (El-Sherif et al., 2022). Telemedicine has helped to reduce the danger of virus infection by eliminat-ing the requirement for in-person visits to healthcare institutions.
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Improving patient outcomes: Telemedicine has been found to enhance pa-tient outcomes in a variety of areas, including chronic disease care and early identification of health concerns. Telemedicine has helped to enhance the quality of care provided to patients by allowing healthcare practitioners to remotely monitor patients and make timely interventions.
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Telemedicine has the potential to considerably lower healthcare delivery costs by eliminating the demand for in-person visits and minimizing the require-ment for hospitalization. This may have a significant influence on the health-care system’s sustainability, for example, by utilizing sustainable telehealth business models (Velayati et al., 2022), and help to guarantee that more people have access to high-quality treatment.
In the post-COVID-19 era, telemedicine has become a vital instrument in the delivery of healthcare services. With the continuous advancement of technology and growing awareness of the benefits of telemedicine, it is expected to play an even larger role in the coming years (Ong et al., 2021).
This paper contributes to the subject of healthcare engineering in a unique way by providing an up-to-date and in-depth discussion of the role of telemedicine in the post-COVID-19 era. It is meant to be a useful resource for healthcare prac-titioners, policymakers, researchers, and students interested in investigating the potential of telemedicine to enhance the remote delivery of healthcare services.