scope:

A growing number of initiatives in various countries around the world, most of them small-scale, are described as telehealth or telemedicine or m-health projects. It is not yet clear when the term telehealth or telemedicine should be used to describe such initiatives, because these terms can be described and interpreted in different ways in the absence of a unifying concept.

Telehealth is the use of information and communications technologies to deliver healthcare and transmit health information over both long and short distances. Telehealth is a form of care provision that extends the reach of care, reduces the need for care recipient or client travel and mobility, supports choice in healthcare service delivery, preventative care, individual self-care, and may also increase the efficiency of care. Currently telemedicine is seen as a providing a subset of a broader suite of telehealth services. Telehealth also includes ICT applications that support a wider set of activities including educational and administrative use.

This Technical Specification provides advice and recommendations on how to develop quality objectives and guidelines for telehealth services that that use information and communications technologies (ICTs) to deliver healthcare over both long and short distances by using a risk managment process. The following key requirements are considered when developing quality objectives and guidelines for telehealth services:

- management of telehealth quality processes by the healthcare organization;

- management of financial resources to support telehealth services;

- processes relating to people such as workforce planning, healthcare planning, and responsibilities;

- provision of infrastructure and facilities resources for telehealth services;

- management of information and technology resources used in telehealth services.