# Telemedicine: A Survey of Telecommunication Technologies, Developments, and Challenges
## 3 Overview of Telemedicine
### Benefits of Telemedicine  
Telemedicine is anticipated to become pervasive within the very near future, and could lead to major advancements in the medical and engineering fields. Telemedicine creates new viable opportunities for efficient medical diagnoses, which will require drugs and equipment manufacturers to adopt new strategies to meet the resultant rising demand [71]. Telemedicine generally has positive outcomes. It enables more people, especially those who live in under-served or rural areas, to receive the high-quality medical treatment they deserve. Telemedicine is a method of interacting with the connected patients of today while reducing healthcare costs, and may lead to significant improvements in the current system of providing medical care. The near-future potential of telemedicine is discussed in this subsection and summarized in Figure 5.  
1. Improved Patient Access and Convenience: the primary motivation behind the development of the telemedicine sphere is the desire to provide patients with easier access to high-quality medical care. The United States is widely credited as the birthplace of telemedicine, where it was established to fill the gap in medical care in under-served areas, particularly rural outposts [72]. Today, telemedicine is used all around the world, whether to provide primary care to residents of developing nations or to help an older patients with mobility challenges receive the medical attention they need without leaving the house. In addition to removing the restrictions that distance and time usually place on receipt of medical attention, telemedicine has the potential to streamline the entire healthcare delivery process for patients.
2. Reduced Medical Expenses: every year, the United States spends more than any other developed country on healthcare, at nearly USD 2.9 trillion [73]. Moreover, it is anticipated that almost USD 200 billion of these costs are wasteful and unnecessary expenditures. Because of its potential to improve the efficiency of regular healthcare appointments and reduce wasteful spending on items such as emergency room visits and drug refills, telemedicine has the potential to significantly reduce the national healthcare budget.
3. Improving the Availability of Expert Advice: one of the most immediate benefits of implementing telemedicine into a medical facility or practice is the increased availability of subspecialists. This paves the way for primary care physicians to confer with medical specialists on a patient's condition and for patients to see a required specialist regardless of their location. In addition, telemedicine allows X-Ray examinations to be outsourced, which is particularly useful for small hospitals that do not have a full staff of radiologists [72].
4. Increasing Patient Participation: with the use of telemedicine, patients can maintain regular contact with their physician at their own convenience, which increases their level of involvement in their own care. In this way, the doctor-patient relationship is strengthened and patients have a greater sense of control over their health care.
5. Higher Standard of Care for Patients: follow-up care is facilitated by telemedicine, as it allows doctors to check in with patients remotely to ensure their health and well-being. Better treatment outcomes are achieved through the use of telemedicine, whether through a more comprehensive remote patient monitoring system to check the patient's heart or through a video chat that can answer queries about medication after hospital discharge.