The advent of telemedicine can bring several improvements to over-stretched public health systems in developing countries. For example, telemedicine enables tertiary health care units to access expensive equipment and expert advice from a centralized location, thereby improving diagnoses and reducing unnecessary referrals to already overcrowded specialty hospitals.
Patients also benefit by avoiding the cost and hardship of traveling far longer distances.
That site also provides details of three pilot telemedicine projects. The United Nations Health InterNetwork promises to test whether online delivery of high quality information and international connectivity answers the information and communication needs of developing country researchers.