Telemedicine for the delivery of specialist pediatric services

Telemedicine is the transmission of healthcare information over a distance using information and communication technologies (ICTs) for the purpose of diagnosis, treatment, or management of a patient. This chapter provides a background for telepediatrics in low‐ to middle‐income countries (LMICs), explores the variety of telepediatric models of care that can be utilized and provides case study examples. Telemedicine can be delivered using different technologies. Videoconferencing is one of the main modalities of telemedicine. Store‐and‐forward is another modality of telemedicine. Regardless of the modality used for telemedicine they all rely on ICTs. It is important to examine both the availability of internet connectivity and devices to connect to the Internet in LMICs. Email‐based telemedicine can facilitate store‐and‐forward telemedicine consultations in a large number of medical specialties and applications. There are a number of hosted telemedicine services suitable for use in LMICs.