Summary
Objectives: Telemedicine is developed in response to the needs of users that results in a more
viable model. Yale has developed a process called tele-affiliation to combine services
that are customized to the international client’s needs.
Methods: Several defined steps compose the tele-affiliation process. The Yale-Greece telemedicine
program is used as an illustration of this process. Some of the programs developed
in response to Greek needs include breast cancer clinics, women’s health clinics and
tele-homecare monitoring for post-operative and chronically ill patients.
Results: Tele-affiliation creates an infrastructure that has the potential to change the method
of health care delivery. By using the infrastructure created by the tele-affiliation
process, templates for disease management, as well as health promotion and education
can be delivered to a global audience.
Conclusions: A tele-affiliation education environment has been developed and tested between Yale
University School of Medicine and Greece resulting in an improved infrastructure for
health education and management.
Keywords
Telemedicine - tele-affiliation - distance learning - training
