BEYOND VIDEOCONFERENCE: A LITERATURE REVIEW OF STORE-AND-FORWARD APPLICATIONS IN TELEHEALTH

摘要

Telehealth applications have grown significantly over recent years with a primary focus on videoconference or real-time applications to deliver health services across distances. This paper reviews recent literature on the use of store-and-forward or asynchronous telehealth applications in delivering clinical health services. The discussion covers clinical applications, advantages and disadvantages, considerations for future development and research regarding store-and-forward applications. If the reported benefits of store-and-forward are fully realized, the future of telehealth points clearly to significant growth of such applications in many areas of health care service delivery.