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May 09, 2013

WebRTC Will Play Role in Telemedicine for Rural Areas


There has been a lot written as of late about WebRTC (Real-time Communications), a new browser-based HTML5 standard that will allow people using different equipment, devices and even different Web browsers to initiate chat, voice calls and conferencing chat without downloading any special software or plug-ins.

A lot of the attention has focused around the customer support industry and call centers. Certainly, WebRTC will allow customers browsing Web sites to contact companies for another, added channel of support more easily. It’s expected to revolutionize both the e-commerce markets and the social media industries.

But there are many other applications for WebRTC, and one of them is expected to be healthcare. Earlier this week, we explored the ways that telemedicine – long-distance healthcare tasks accomplished by technology – is helping provide patients with better access to healthcare. WebRTC is expected to play a strong role in this new model. 

Jeff Rowe, a contributing writer for HealthCare IT news, recently explored some of the ways that WebRTC will revolutionize healthcare, essentially becoming a new tool for telemedicine.

Rowe spoke to Jim Machi, VP of product management for Dialogic, a major player in WebRTC technology, to discover some ways the standard may help doctors working in remote parts of the country or the world. They are as follows:

  • It eliminates need for purchasing special equipment. "It could be as simple as buying a tablet," Machi told HealthCare IT news. This will be a big boost to healthcare providers without large technology budgets who want to add services from a distance but can't afford major investments in equipment.
  • It expands the range of options. Rural providers will have more choices when it comes to capabilities such as phone or video conferencing, sending videos or other records to colleagues, or reaching out to specialists for consultations.
  • It should spur application development and growth. "Dialogic sells an engine to the car, but it's not the whole car," said Machi, who predicted that WebRTC will lead to the development of "applications that can help healthcare by marrying the internet and telecommunications more easily."

While discussions of telemedicine often involve expensive, proprietary equipment and IT initiatives, it’s easy to forget that at its core, it’s simply a way of enabling healthcare over distances. WebRTC, once it reaches critical saturation in browsers, can go a long way toward ensuring rural communities have better access to professional healthcare services.




Edited by Alisen Downey
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