Disadvantages Of Telehealth In Education

Improved communication technologies have increased demand/supply of better healthcare, such as through telehealth. Telehealth is defined as the use of electronic technology (i.e. computers and mobile devices) and digital information to provide healthcare and telecommunication at a distance, which means that the 'receiver ' is not physically present with the 'sender ' (MayoClinic, 2014). Telehealth is able to provide and expand health and medical help and give advantages, as well as reduce limitations, to the current health system. Three types of current and proposed telehealth application types are education, counselling, and homecare (Hebda & Czar, 2013).

Education

Education applications of telehealth, also termed as tele-education,

inside a classroom) due to time (e.g. full-time job and family) or geographic location (e.g. located in Alaska) (White, Krousel-Wood, & Mather, 2001). Distance education of telehealth consists of systematic medical education, 'grand rounds ', and patient education (Hebda & Czar, 2013). Some of the additional perceived benefits or positive impacts in respect of telehealth in education (or 'tele-education ') comprise of improved student satisfaction in learning, increased depth of knowledge, regional medical training (i.e. allowing rural/remote locations to give/receive training with the other organization), access to continuing medical education (i.e. reduced need for travel so that students/doctors can conveniently access the information, access to the information for all healthcare professions, etc.), and access to updated knowledge (e.g. medical, technical, and informatics information) (Gagnon, Duplantie, Fortin, & Landry, 2007). However, Gagnon et al. (2007) mention that a negative impact of medical tele-education is decreased recruitment and retention in the continuing medical care activities, since tele-education would reduce the

Telepsychology involves the use of the internet, Skye, and other telecommunication to provide mental health services by counsellors (and/or psychologists) to clients/patients. Some of the other terms used for telepsychology include web-counselling, online counselling, e-psychology, e-counselling, and telephone counselling (Novotney, 2011). With telepsychology, the counsellor, or psychiatrist, is able to assess a patient 's cognitive, mental, and behavioral issues and create a management/treatment plan, which may be communicated with the patient 's doctor and/or other counsellors. Positive impacts of telepsychology includes increased positive access/availability to patients, increased patient satisfaction, and improved ability for patients with severe agoraphobia to seek initial counselling help (Novotney, 2011). One of the main negative impact of telepsychology is the lack (or lower) confidentiality and privacy, in comparison to in-person counselling, because the data/correspondence in person is stored securely within the office, whereas with online communication data/information is stored digitally, which may become compromised or illegal accessed and used by internet hackers; in addition, by using telepsychology at home, the patient 's family may hear the conversation, resulting in a confidentiality risk (Hebda & Czar, 2013; Walton, 2013).