Today, telecommunication technology and information technology are widely used in medicine and related sciences. Doctors consult with each other about their patients by landline or cell phone every day. Specialists teach general practitioners or students specialized tips through video conference systems or websites. Doctors store patient file information in their personal computers and send it to another doctor for review when necessary.

In hospitals, central information management systems, central systems for displaying patients' vital signs, and call systems for on-call doctors are usually used. The vital signs of astronauts or air and sea passengers are sent and evaluated to specialized centers on the ground and many other applications, some of which are common only in developed and industrialized countries. However, it may not be possible to exchange medical data at the global level. The technology that tries to solve these problems is telemedicine or remote medicine. This technology is the result of a wide range of research in telecommunications, electronics, information, computer science and medicine. The goal of telemedicine is to provide specialized treatment and health care facilities for remote locations through telecommunication and information technologies, while reducing treatment costs.

Telemedicine allows the doctor to provide care, diagnosis, treatment and consultation with other doctors from one point to another point. As a result, it is possible to provide specialized medical services in remote areas, as well as special care in acute and emergency cases. Telemedicine can help rescue teams in natural disasters to communicate with specialists who are not necessarily on site. Also, remote medical achievements are used in the battlefields to help the war wounded, which are effective in saving them even in seconds.

Currently, the number of clinical applications of telemedicine is very large, but the number of patients and specialists who benefit from it is limited, and the reason for this is the lack of introduction of these systems in a principled and widespread manner. Also, the lack of allocation of sufficient funds and formal programs for research is one of the reasons for its lack of progress. In industrialized countries, telemedicine is used as an achievement of knowledge and technology to solve economic and social problems.

Telemedicine is the delivery of medical, health and wellness services, when distance is a critical issue, using medical specialties and information and telecommunication technologies to exchange valuable information and diagnosis, treatment and prevention of diseases and injuries, and continuous education. Research and development is to improve the quality of health of individuals and communities.

Telemedicine has been used since 1959, when the first experiences of Telepsychiatry and Telefluoroscopy were obtained and new surgical devices were presented in conferences. Telemetry methods mainly peaked in the 60s with radio telemetry of astronauts' parameters during training and space travel. About 40 years ago, the simplest type of telemedicine, the ECG display, was performed remotely over a regular network telephone line. In the 70s and 90s, telemedicine was focused on sending images through television, and in the early 90s, more video conferences were used in teleconsultation.

In Iran, a lot of attention has been drawn to this technology in recent years. Among the works done, the following can be mentioned:

Automatic management of hospital equipment and services, design and simulation of the PACS system for hospitals, design and construction of a telephone transmission device for electrocardiogram signals, design and construction of an archive system and transmission of medical images, design of a portable system to check hemodynamic parameters in real time And with non-invasive techniques, design and implementation of Farsi language computer workstation for display, processing of medical images and research project of Shahrood Electronic Hospital.

Communication technology makes it possible to provide medical services to centers that are geographically separated from the provider center. Telemedicine communication is usually provided through regular telephone lines for the transmission of digital signals with the help of a computer. Also, advanced communication facilities such as optical fibers, satellite lines and similar things provide wide possibilities in information transmission.

Telemedicine can be considered in three different areas:

 Helping to make decisions

The simplest possibility of telemedicine is to use the information bank of medical centers to make the right decision. This function, which is the oldest application of telemedicine, provides research results and various treatment methods for doctors during work with the help of search engines.

 transfer of sense

The meaning of sense transfer is to send patient information from one center to another center. Information such as the patient's vital signs, especially digital radiological images, and even the patient's appearance can be transmitted through telemedicine.

 Collaboration in real time patient management

The most important and newest application of telemedicine is the application of the technology of transmitting video images of the patient, which helps different doctors manage treatment processes such as surgeries or long-term processes. In addition to the video images of the patient's appearance, the information of various equipment such as ophthalmoscope, otoscope and dermascope can also be transmitted.

Clinical applications of telemedicine

In telemedicine, data transfer including medical photos, audio and visual bilateral reports of the patient's medical reports, data extraction from medical centers (including necessary information) and sending it in the form of a file is done.

Telemedicine in today's world includes the interaction of two audio-visual systems between the patient and medical specialties, sending data related to the patient from home to the clinic or transferring the file related to the patient's medical data. In general, telemedicine is used with the aim of increasing the quality of treatment, improving communication between medical centers, optimizing access to specialists, reducing the need to transport patients, and reducing treatment costs.

Today, many medical specialties use telemedicine extensively. From cardiologists to dermatologists, medical, home care, endocrinologists, surgeons, radiologists and even psychiatrists have employed this advanced technology.

It has been proven that telemedicine has the best benefits and effects in the health care of rural areas, which unfortunately could not spread in the past due to the high cost of the equipment.