The International Telecommunication Union's Report on Telemedicine and Developing Countries

This paper reviews some of the main conclusions and recommendations from the Report on Telemedicine and Developing Countries, which was prepared for the International Telecommunication Union (ITU). The report is the result of three years' effort by a group of experts in telecommunications and telemedicine from around the world. It provides an extensive survey of the telemedicine experience of various countries. It discusses the different types and applications of telemedicine, the technologies used, costs and benefits, trends, prospects for global standards, and provides guidelines and recommendations to developing countries for implementation of telemedicine services. The ITU study group which prepared the report is expected to begin some new tasks in 1998, including the identification of a set of pilot telemedicine projects for developing countries.