Health and mobility: Current status and future paradigms

Abstract

The movement of telemedicine to the wireless and mobile Internetable applications is imminent in the next few years. This migration from the desktop platforms to the wireless and mobile configurations will have significant impact on the future health care delivery system and their globalisation. The recent telecommunications and biomedical computing advances will significantly enhance the current methodologies of telemedicine and telecare systems. This editorial will present some of the evolutionary issues and important aspects that have to be considered in the developing technologies for the next generation of Internet and Third Generation of Mobile Systems (3G), geared for future telemedical applications. These will provide new dimensions to existing medical services and areas of outreach, that are not possible in the current generation and will have tremendous impact on how the health care delivery will be shaped for the 21 Century.