La implementación de la telesalud en colombia: parámetros para su abordaje integral

Abstract

This book is the result of a joint effort by a research team from the School of Health Sciences of the Universidad Nacional Abierta y a Distancia (UNAD, for the Spanish acronym). It is the continuity of the book “Integración del modelo de Telesalud y la estrategia de Atención Primaria en Salud” (Integration of the Telehealth Model and the Primary Health Care Strategy) published by the same School in 2015. Therefore, we invite the public to read this first volume as a starting point to get an understanding of the basic and necessary concepts included in this new academic work. Before continuing, it is important to mention that since telemedicine is understood as a forming part of telehealth, it was decided to use the concept of telehealth throughout this book and not join it only to telemedicine. Nevertheless, in practice, all its content refers to transferring, analyzing, and diagnosing medical information between the specialties to ensure that the strategy of Primary Health Care (PHC) is effective. This book contains 11 chapters that account for the current and critical circumstances of public health in Colombia. Thus, it shares useful reflections and information resulting from experience, academic events, expressions of support, and motivation from people who work and study such topics and who, in one way or another, believe in and are “passionate” about improving the health conditions of populations we are part of.