Extending Healthcare's Reach Telemedicine can help spread
medical expertise around the globe ARTWORK: PETE MCARTHUR This
is part of IEEE Spectrum's special report: Critical Challenges
2002: Technology Takes On The well-being of tomorrow's patients
demands changes in the healthcare structure of today. So says a
committee of experts from the U.S. Institute of Medicine (IOM),
Washington, D.C., in an analysis of the state of U.S. healthcare
in 2001. If even now the system cannot consistently get the
right care to the right patients, "we may conclude that it is
even less prepared to respond to the extraordinary scientific
advances that will surely emerge during the first half of the
21st century," the IOM study warns. Besides the failure to
disseminate medical knowledge fast enough or to use it in a
methodical manner, there is another shortfall: medical
practitioners with scarce, specialized knowledge cannot bring it
to bear beyond their geographical confines. But technological
solutions, telemedicine in particula