Applications and Challenges of Telemedicine: Privacy-Preservation as a Case Study

Abstract

Today, technology has an important impact on the development of medical services, especially during the outbreak of COVID-19. Telemedicine, known by terms such as telehealth and digital health, refers to the utilization of technology to provide health care services at a distance that leads to improved monitoring, detecting and treatment of disease, and provision of individual care. It has been considered in various fields such as radiology, cardiology, pulmonology, psychiatry, emergency care and surgery. The most important advantages of using telemedicine are saving time for the doctor and the patient, reducing the cost of multiple visits to the doctor, reducing the spread of contagious diseases and caring for patients who cannot see a doctor, such as the elderly. In this paper, we review the research in the field of applying telemedicine, as well as its advantages and disadvantages. Next, we discuss the challenges in the field of using telemedicine which are privacy preserving, data security, cost of infrastructures, lack of physical examination and responsibility for patients’ compensation. One of the most important challenges is privacy preserving of patients’ information during transmission and process. We categorize and compare the various methods that have been proposed to protect peoples’ privacy.