Automated Devices in Taiwan’s Telemedicine Industry

Abstract

Telemedicine industry generally refers to the application of media technology to overcome the limits of time and space and to interactive medical professional consulting and advisory services so that doctors may attend remote video conferences and provide tele-consultation for a full range of medical care in remote and island areas, and moreover, healthcare professionals in these areas may be accessible to educational training opportunities. Therefore, this study investigated and analyzed the automation process as required by doctors in remote areas to diagnose and treat patients, in order to point out the limitation in the current telemedicine process automation and the new potential automation devices for better quality in overall telemedicine services. According to the survey on the need for telemedicine process automation in this AHP-based study, among all the questionnaires from respondents, 38.96% of them suggested that the process of “transmission of medical information” is most in need of automation technology to improve the service quality and efficiency. 37.91% of them suggested that the process of “retrieval of medical information” is most in need of the assistance from automation technology.

Keywords

• Telemedicine
• automation
• analytic Hierarchy Process