Performance prediction of interactive telemedicine

Abstract

Telemedicine is a remote medical practice, which utilizes information and communication technology to provide healthcare and exchange of health information for distance places. Diagnosis and prescription for rural and remote area patients are the main advantages of this system. The major categories of telemedicine are store-and-forward, remote patient monitoring and interactive telemedicine. Interactive telemedicine is a real-time interaction between patients and doctors. This method can be conducted in a nursing home or at the patient's house via a video-conferencing system. Moreover, this is more convenient for patients, than to obtain health care with a caretaker in person. However, Internet-based networks are congested with many users. We considered interactive telemedicine as a queueing system and analyzed it by using the method of supplementary variables. We obtained the performance measures through a probability generating function. The numerical results of the queueing system may be useful to provide service satisfactorily and update the utility function of interactive telemedicine. Keywords: Telemedicine, Interactive telemedicine, Queueing system, Supplementary variable technique