ICT framework for an online medical system

Abstract

Although many healthcare back office functions and support services are now available to both medical practitioners and patients, the field is yet to embark upon any significant medical online system that facilitates the remote diagnosis and treatment of patients via an on-line system. This paper proposes an online medical system that will enable patients to interact with medical practitioners in medical consultation, diagnosis, and treatment. The medical system provides a virtual environment for patients, practitioners and medical staff to interact. We outline the functional components of the medical system and describe the technologies applied to support an interactive experience. Several patient scenarios are used to describe how this system functions including general practitioner consultation, a medical specialist visit, and support for emergency services via mobile devices. The benefits of the proposed system are also contrasted with several existing medical expert systems. Given the growth and use of on-line systems and recent trends to deploy high bandwidth communication infrastructure (such as the National Broadband Network), the opportunity exists to deploy new medical systems that provide healthcare to all people in both local and remote communities.