4. Telehealth Powered by Office 365

Did you know that the telemedicine concept was invented in the 1960s by NASA? Yes, to monitor astronauts’ health from Earth at NASA centers, NASA sent several test flights using animals attached to medical monitoring systems, which sent the animals’ biometric data to scientists on Earth via a telemetric link. The focus on the possible limitations of the human body forced NASA to take a technologically focused approach to telemedicine. In situations where a quick return to Earth was not possible, the ability to not only monitor biometric data, but also engage at least rudimentary guided medical treatment by non-physicians, was critical. The same concept applied to remote rural areas where medical help was not available to those who needed it urgently. As we say, necessity is the mother of all invention, and from this necessity was born telehealth. The US military started using telemedicine in the 1980s to combat several natural disasters and conflicts. The American Telemedicine Association (ATA) describes telemedicine as the use of medical information exchanged from one site to another via electronic communications to improve a patient’s clinical health status.