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Telemedicine and Telehealth Applications: Remote Sensing and Human HealthTele-Monitoring for the Whole Community[Source: Beck LR, Lobitz BM and Wood BL. Remote Sensing and Human Health: New Sensors and New Opportunities. Emerging Infectious Diseases Journal (CDC). 2000;6(3) (Cached PDF version)]
Since the launch of Landsat-1 28 years ago, remotely sensed data have been used to map features on the earth’s surface. An increasing number of health studies have used remotely sensed data for monitoring, surveillance, or risk mapping, particularly of vector-borne diseases, e.g., malaria. Nearly all studies used data from Landsat, the French Système Pour l'Observation de la Terre, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer. New sensor systems are in orbit, or soon to be launched, whose data may prove useful for characterising and monitoring the spatial and temporal (i.e., changes with time) patterns of infectious diseases. Increased computing power and spatial modelling capabilities of GIS could extend the use of remote sensing beyond the research community into operational disease surveillance and control. (Beck et al, 2000)
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Telemedicine and Telehealth
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Most of the telemedicine technologies described elsewhere in
this module address single individual patients (e.g., for tele-monitoring, tele-examination
or tele-operation) or a group of health professionals (e.g., for tele-education).
Remote sensing and the closely related discipline of geographic information
systems (GIS), on the other hand, have the potential of using remotely sensed
(or tele-monitored) data in public health applications for the benefit of entire
communities rather than single individuals.