How does talesurgery differ from telemedicine?

Answer 1

I presume you mean "telesurgery" which I define as a physician actively performing a surgical procedure on a patient at a distant location.

Telemedicine is the use of computers along with video and audio technologies to bring geographically separated doctors and patients together in real-time for medical purposes other than telesurgery. Normally, a lower level provider such as a nurse acts as a "presenter" who presents the patient to the physician during a video conference. The nurse takes vital signs and helps the patient describe his or her complaint(s) to the physician. The physician may ask the nurse to use an examination camera to provide him with images of the patient's skin, eyes, ears or throat to help him understand the patient's condition and make a diagnosis. In most states in the U.S., a telemedicine visit does not establish a doctor-patient relationship. That requires an initial in-person visit with the physician and documentation of a complete medical history. Once a relationship is established, the physician may prescribe prescription medications.

Some include telemedicine as a subset of telehealth, but my definition of telehealth is the use of passive monitoring equipment that sends data to a nurse or other healthcare provider who then determines the physical status of a patient with a chronic medical problem. These devices are used with patients that have a history of the same medical problems.

Telesurgery is still in the very early stages of development. Very few telesurgeries have been performed because robotic surgery, ala the da Vinci Robot, is already quite complicated and requires a good deal of training. A telesurgeon must use a computer to command a surgical robot at a remote location. Cameras and microphones function as his eyes and ears. At the present time, telesurgery requires redundant systems in the event of equipment failure as well as a secure connection between the physician's computer and the robot. The possibility of an interruption in the connection adds to the risks of telesurgery.