Comparative Study On Design & Implementation Principles & concerns of Telemedicine Applications for disaster

Background and Aim: Health care systems are now faced with the biggest challenge since their inception. In parallel with the increase in life expectancy, the needs of people to health care have been increased, demographic characteristics have been changed, and people’s expectations in relation to health care also continue to rise. In this regard, increase in productivity as well as improving the quality of services is a major challenge that will not be solved without innovation. One of the promising areas of innovation is the use of technologies such as information and communication technologies. Telemedicine is also a special area for the application of technology in health care delivery systems, including management of crises and natural disasters.Method: In this study, due to the futuristic and innovative nature of the subject, Delphi method with Likert scale was used to identify and recognize the agents and effective options in the successful implementation of telemedicine in the earthquake crisis in the country. This method was conducted in three phases, at first the effective parameters were identified and classified into six categories as the effective criteria in the successful implementation of telemedicine in the earthquake disaster. This was done by using the documents and library resources and previous studies and also brainstorming method and interviews with Delphi experts, including 35 country’s experts in the field of telemedicine with different expertise in the field of medicine, information technology and crisis management. Finally, the degree of importance of the six criteria and indicators were prioritized by using the results of Delphi method and the views of a group of experts.Results: According to the obtained results, 33 indicators in 6 criteria including telecommunications, technical, social, cultural, health, financial and organizational infrastructure were identified and classified as effective factors in the successful implementation of telemedicine in the earthquake. From among the targeted criteria, telecommunications infrastructure was recognized as the first priority and social and cultural infrastructure as the sixth priority and then an appropriate model was presented for Iran based on these priorities

Keywords:

Telemedicine , technology , crisis , victims , health care