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Tele-medicine coined in 1970s , stands for : 'healing at a distance'. According to the WHO, there are 4 elements namely to provide clinical support, to overcome geographic barriers to connect individuals that are not in the same physical location, it involves various communication technologies, and to improve health outcome. The driving force for tele-medicine are the advancement and availability of mobile communication technologies with the expansion of wireless broadband technology, the escalating health epidemics and the shortage of physician and nursing. There are various types of tele-medicine. The use of telemedicine in Hepatology is well known starting with successful implementations in hepatitis C treatment in the era of interferon, virtual multi-disciplinary tumour boards for hepatocellular carcinoma and the management of patients with cirrhosis and the accompanying complications of cirrhosis. Tele-medicine has also been used in the field of liver transplantation as tele-evaluation, tele-monitoring post liver transplantation. Patients reported better satisfaction with tele-medicine. The recent COVID-19 pandemic has also increased its use and acceptance when physical clinics were rapidly converted or adapted to virtual clinics and telecommunications become routine daily personal or work related activities for most people. Leveraging telecommunication technology to adopt tele-hepatology could potentially benefit in terms of access, efficiency and equity in the field of liver transplantation. |
