Abstract
When designing a facility for telemedicine, there are several things to consider from a human factors point of view, as well as from a practicality point of view. Although the future practice of telemedicine is likely to be more of a mobile-based practice and centered more in the home than it is now, it is still very important to consider ways to optimize the design of clinic-based telemedicine facilities. This is true on both ends of a consultation—where the patient is and where the consultant is. On the patient side, the first thing to realize is that most telemedicine clinics are not going to be newly designed and built. In all likelihood they will be existing rooms converted to telemedicine clinic rooms. Quite often the former room will not even have been used for clinical purposes, but may have simply been a storage area cleared out for telemedicine use. Therefore, design is often a challenge but there are a few basic principles that can be followed to create a workable clinical space. This paper will review some of the basic human factors principles to take into account when designing a working telemedicine environment.
Highlights
Clinical Room DesignThe future practice of telemedicine is likely to be more of a mobile-based practice [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8]
When designing a facility for telemedicine, there are several things to consider from a human factors point of view, as well as from a practicality point of view
While there are some standards regarding the acquisition of images for some of the many telemedicine applications, guidance on calibration of color displays for medical images is fragmented without consensus regarding what type of calibration should be performed even within a given clinical specialty
Summary
The future practice of telemedicine is likely to be more of a mobile-based practice [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8]. In many cases renovated facilities may not even have been used originally for clinical purposes, but may have been a storage area cleaned up for telemedicine use. A clinic that is dedicated to geriatric patients needs to account for their vision, hearing and mobility challenges in the room design [15]; while a clinic dedicated to pediatrics needs to perhaps include toys or books to entertain them while they are waiting for the consultation to begin; and a telesurgery clinic needs to position cameras and other equipment around the wide array of existing surgical equipment and tools [12]
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
