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oped for the application for healthcare. Currently, MUMPS is still utilized in electronic health recording systems. Later in
1974, a standard was introduced as the demand for different programming languages for different computer platforms came
into the picture. Nowadays the development of medical appli- cations for different computer platforms are developed and
used as ‘Cach´e’. However, a lot of current electronic health record systems are developed by relational databases
.Therefore, the development of healthcare informatics shows a wide range of areas which is associated with IT. It includes all
features of technologies associated with caring, consulting, treating, preventing, monitoring and rehabilitating. Our discus-
sion will now focus on networking and communication tech- nology for healthcare purposes.
1.4 Types of Different Definitions of Telemedicine
Telemedicine aims to support various medical application and services through a combination of information and communica-
tion technology ICT, multimedia and computer networking technologies. According to wiki, telemedicine is defined as an
application whereby medical information is sent through the phone, internet and sometimes other network for remote medi-
cal procedures or examinations and consultation. It is similar to the definition given in Section 1.5. Also, Telemedicine Infor-
mation Exchange Brown 1996, NG, H et al 2006 describe telemedicine as the transfer of medical data through the utiliza-
tion of electronic signals from one site to another by telephones, the internet, PCs, videoconferencing and satellites that aim to
improve health care. Reid 1996, MAHEU, M et al 2002, JENNETT, P et al 2003 however specify telemedicine as utiliz-
ing the advancement in telecommunication to transfer health information and support health care services regardless of the
geographical, social, time and cultural barriers. Kantor’s 1997, BASHSHUR, R et al 2000 Telemedicine Report to Congress
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defined telemedicine as a way to obtain health care which has not been available before. Therefore, telemedicine can mean
saving a live or losing a life while handling emergency cases whereby administrating immediate medical assistance in time
and specialty care is crucial. At North Carolina University Hos- pital, a specialist detected a hairline spinal fracture of a rural
patient at a distance via telemedicine video imaging. Subse- quent treatment was then performed on the spot without the
need of shifting the patient to the specialist’s location and the patient was saved.
There are a few similarities that can be seen among the various definitions. All these definitions were made in the mid-1990s
which suggests that telemedicine was recognized as a signifi- cant field only a decade ago. Other than that, all the definitions
can simple be related to giving a wide range of medical services from a far via any type of telecommunication technology.
1.5 Telemedicine Overview
At the beginning of the research, telemedicine was explained. In short, it can be explained as the utilization of networking and
telecommunication technologies in sending and receiving medi- cal and healthcare application data. With the current modern
telecommunication system data can be transmitted through var- ious networks in various forms. It can be as mere exchange of
ideas between two doctors via phone about a patient or as com- plex as a live feed of a surgical operation in a hospital transmit-
ted through an advance network of global hospital enterprise controlled by surgeons from various parts of the globe. To fur-
ther understand the wide description of telemedicine, a summa- rization of a few services supported by telemedicine is
illustrated in Figure 1.4. It is clear that the list is incomplete. Nevertheless it displays the major and common services applied
around the world. A common similarity can be seen in analyz-
