Abstract
Telemedicine has become an increasingly popular option for long-distance health care and continuing education. As information and communication technology is underdeveloped in China, telemedicine develops slowly. At present, telemedicine consultation centers are situated mainly in developed cities, such as Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou. In many less developed regions, such as northwest China, the conditions or related facilities are not available for the application of a better medical service. Accordingly, the aim of this paper was to introduce the construction and application of a telemedicine consultation center in Gansu Province in the northwest of China. In addition, the function of Gansu Provincial Telemedicine Consultation Center on emergency public events was introduced. As a whole, there was a great demand for telemedicine service in the local medical institutions. In the telemedicine consultation center, the telemedicine equipments and regulations were needed to be improved. The function of telemedicine service was not fully used, there was a large space to be applied and the publicity of telemedicine service was important. What is important was that telemedicine played a significance role in promoting the medical policy reform, improving the medical environment and launching the remote rescue in the emergency public events. This paper emphasizes the health care challenges of poor regions, and indicates how to share the high-quality medical service of provincial hospitals effectively and how to help residents in resource-poor environments.
Highlights
The Chinese telemedicineWith the advancement of information and communication technology, children and adults can receive high-quality health care from a distance through telemedicine [1]
In Gansu, the per capita annual cash living expenditure of rural residents is 3,689.03 yuan, which is lower than the standard level of the whole nation (5,414.47 yuan) [10]
Of the population aged 6 years and above, 8.82% have no educational experience at all. This percentage is quite high when compared with other areas in China [6], and the percentage of rural residents who have a college degree or experience of higher education amounts to only 8.90% [10]
Summary
With the advancement of information and communication technology, children and adults can receive high-quality health care from a distance through telemedicine [1]. In China, the first telemedicine consultation center was founded in The People’s Liberation Army General Hospital in 1988, where neurosurgery case discussions were carried out with doctors in Germany by satellite for the first time [2]. Telemedicine has a 27-year history in China. In the late 1990s, there was a shift from the theoretical exploration of telemedicine consultation to its gradual application. The National Health and Family Planning Commission (NHFPC) of PLOS ONE | DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0158026. The National Health and Family Planning Commission (NHFPC) of PLOS ONE | DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0158026 June 22, 2016
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