Telemedicine

Definition, scope & terminology

• Telemedicine (WHO 2010, adopted by India) — delivery of health-care services — where distance is a critical factor — by health-care professionals using information & communication technologies (ICT) to exchange valid information for diagnosis, treatment, prevention, research/evaluation and continuing education.
• Telehealth (broader umbrella) — encompasses telemedicine (clinical services) plus non-clinical services — provider training, administrative meetings, CME and public-health surveillance delivered over ICT.
• Whom the TPG 2020 governs — Registered Medical Practitioners (RMPs) of modern (allopathic) medicine enrolled in the State/Indian Medical Register under the IMC Act 1956 (now NMC Act 2019).
• In scope — text/audio/video consultations, synchronous & asynchronous, between patient–RMP, caregiver–RMP, RMP–RMP and health-worker–RMP; first and follow-up consults; emergency advice limited to first-aid/life-saving counselling + referral.
• Out of scope (explicitly excluded) — hardware/software/data-standard specification, consultations outside India's jurisdiction, tele-surgery / remote robotic procedures, formal health-worker education, and the conduct/regulation of clinical trials — so this topic is not general clinical-trial methodology.
• MD Pharmacology framing — telemedicine is one milieu of clinical pharmacology — the science of rational, safe, evidence-based drug use in real patients (KDT 8e Ch.5).