CONCLUSION

Cooperative telemedical informatics will have a direct impact on the rapidly changing scene of information and communication technology (including advanced communication systems) and will provide for greater interaction among doctors , radiologists, and health-care professionals to integrate information quickly and efficiently and make effective decisions at all levels. Some important pilot studies have already taken place in India recently in Apollo hospitals for emergency consultations and remote health care in Indian villages using satellite links (Ganapathy, 2001).Virtual e- hospitals will be a reality in the near future, providing much needed health care that is of great benefit to the human society. Telemedical informatics offers exciting possibilities and is a vastly expanding area of research. For those interested in current developments in these areas in the United States (National Library of Medicine, http://www.nlm.nih.gov/reserch/telemedicinit.html; University of Iowa, Virtual Hospital, http://www.vh.org/index.html) and Australia (CSIRO), reference may be made to several journals in the telemedicine area and also the Web sites provided at the end of this chapter.