6 There have been a number of changes in medical process technology that have had a huge impact on the way healthcare operations manage themselves. In particular, telemedicine has challenged one of the most fundamental assumptions of medical treatment – that medical staff need to be physically present to examine and diagnose a patient. No longer; web-connected devices are now able to monitor an individual’s health-related data and communicate the information to healthcare professionals located anywhere in the world. Medical staff are alerted to changing conditions as they occur, and provided with a status report of a person’s health so that the appropriate care can be administered.

Telemedicine generally refers to the use of communications and information technologies for the delivery of clinical care. Formally, telemedicine is the ability to provide interactive healthcare utilising modern technology and telecommunications. It allows patients to virtually ‘visit’ with doctors, sometimes live using video links, sometimes automatically in the case of an emergency, sometimes where patient data are stored and sent to doctors for diagnosis and follow-up treatment at a later time. What do you think are the implications of telemedicine for how healthcare operations can be managed?