Special Issue on Sociotechnology and Pervasive Health, Part 1

摘要

The landscape of healthcare has increasingly been defined by a rise in patients with chronic illnesses, changing patterns of service use, and by government cuts in health and social care budgets. Technologies for telehealth, telecare and telemedicine have existed for over forty years and have often been presented as heralding a new era of healthcare, in which access to services and personalised care are improved whilst the costs of care are minimised by enabling healthcare interventions to be delivered within the community; Patients would not need to travel to see specialists, people could be kept safe in their own homes and there would be less need for expensive in-hospital treatment.