- More funding in healthcare will help develop telemedicine further. In addition, creating laws to apply technology into the healthcare system by addressing legal and ethical obstacles will help healthcare facilities to provide telemedicine.

University of Michigan - Ann Arbor

Despite developments in technology, access is still a major issue.

Globally, only 24% of the most vulnerable have access to internet connection, versus 74% of the least vulnerable according to 2019 polling by Gallup’s Basic Needs Vulnerability Index.   Although this divide is notable globally,  this inequity is even more pronounced in developing economies in which the least vulnerable are more than three times as likely to have internet access than the most vulnerable.  This presents a major challenge to telemedicine as an accessible institution. 

This is in part due to prohibitively high costs for individuals and in part due to limitations of infrastructure which pose the largest barriers in rural regions and developing countries.

Limitiations to Telemedicine Access

Keshvardoost, S., Bahaadinbeigy, K., & Fatehi, F. (2020). Role of telehealth in the management of COVID-19: lessons learned from previous SARS, MERS, and Ebola outbreaks. Telemedicine and e-Health.
https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/full/10.1089/TMJ.2020.0105
https://doi.org/10.1089/tmj.2020.0105

Role of Telehealth in the Management of COVID-19: Lessons Learned from Previous SARS, MERS, and Ebola Outbreaks

Adressing Telemedicine Limitations

Guidelines for designing wireless communications for rural telemedicine in developing countries include:

- Data gathering: Collect general population demographic data and geography of the deployment area, including terrain elevation and environmental features.
- Establishing required applications: Identify communications technology that is low-cost, robust, readily available, and easy to operate and maintain.
- Choosing technology: Optimize the quality/cost relation; a wireless WAN is usually the best option.
- Designing physical infrastructure: Conduct extensive radio frequency studies to assess noise and interference.
- Simulation analysis: Perform extensive simulation analysis of the expected network traffic.

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