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CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 · Yearb Med Inform 2023; 32(01): 019-026
DOI: 10.1055/s-0043-1768728
Special Section: Informatics for One Health
Working Group Contributions

Telehealth as a Component of One Health: a Position Paper

Arindam Basu
1   Faculty of Health, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand
,
Vije Kumar Rajput
2   London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, United Kingdom
,
Marcia Ito
3   São Paulo College of Technology, Centro Estadual de Educação Tecnológica Paula Souza, São Paulo, Brazil
,
Prasad Ranatunga
4   Health Information Management Unit, North-western Province, Sri Lanka
,
Craig Kuziemsky
5   McEwan University, Edmonton, Canada
,
Gumindu Kulatunga
6   Health Information Unit, Ministry of Health, Colombo, Sri Lanka
,
Inga Hunter
7   School of Management, Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand
,
Najeeb Al-Shorbaji
8   President, eHealth Development Association, Jordan, Amman, Jordan
,
Shashi Gogia
9   Society for Administration of Telemedicine and Healthcare Informatics, New Delhi, India
,
Sriram Iyengar
10   University of Arizona, United States of America
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Summary

Introduction: One Health (OH) refers to the integration of human, animal, and ecosystem health within one framework in the context of zoonoses, antimicrobial resistance and stewardship, and food security. Telehealth refers to distance delivery of healthcare. A systems approach is central to both One Health and telehealth, and telehealth can be a core component of One Health. Here we explain how telehealth might be integrated into One Health.

Methods: We have considered antimicrobial resistance (AMR) as a use case where both One Health and telehealth can be used for coordination among the farming sector, the veterinary services, and human health providers to mitigate the risk of AMR. We conducted a narrative review of the literature to develop a position on the inter-relationships between telehealth and One Health. We have summarised how telehealth can be incorporated within One Health.

Results: Clinicians have used telehealth to address antimicrobial resistance, zoonoses, food borne infection, improvement of food security and antimicrobial stewardship. We identified little existing evidence in support of the usage of telehealth within a One Health paradigm, although in isolation, both are useful for the same purpose, i.e., mitigation of the significant public health risks posed by zoonoses, food borne infections, and antimicrobial resistance.

Conclusions: It is possible to integrate telehealth within a One Health framework to develop effective inter-sectoral communication essential for the mitigation and addressing of zoonoses, food security, food borne infection containment and antimicrobial stewardship. More research is needed to substantiate and investigate this model of healthcare.

Keywords

One health - telehealth - mHealth - eHealth - telemedicine

Disclaimer

Views expressed in this article are our own and not an official position of the respective institutions.


Disclosure

None or as explained in the accompanying conflict of interest forms.




Publication History

Article published online:
26 December 2023

© 2023. IMIA and Thieme. This is an open access article published by Thieme under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonDerivative-NonCommercial License, permitting copying and reproduction so long as the original work is given appropriate credit. Contents may not be used for commercial purposes, or adapted, remixed, transformed or built upon. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)

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