The future of telemedicine--take the organizational challenge!

Implementation of telemedicine has not been as rapid as was expected in the 1990s. Diffusion of technologies can be complex and is known to be influenced by many factors. Organizational problems are crucial for the future of telemedicine, but have been gravely underestimated. When a telemedicine service is established we have a virtual organization. Internal organizational consequences of telemedicine are very common and more effective use of the technology is likely to require organizational changes. For different applications of the technology there are similarities, and differences, in internal organizational consequences. Organizational matters connected with telemedicine are dealt with in a new book, The Organizational Challenge for Health Care from Telemedicine and E-health, the full text of which is available via the Internet. In the book, solutions are outlined for common organizational problems in telemedicine. Managers must actively lead organizational changes. Replacing simplified optimism with realism may be very important for the future of telemedicine.