Estai Mohamed, Kruger Estie, Tennant Marc, Bunt Stuart, Kanagasingam Yogesan
School of Anatomy, Physiology and Human Biology, University of Western Australia, Crawley, Western Australia, Australia.
Rural Remote Health. 2016 Oct-Dec;16(4):3915. Epub 2016 Nov 28.
With the availability of oral care services very unevenly distributed in rural or remote areas, underserved people seek oral care from non-dental care providers. Against this backdrop, and coupled with the decreasing cost of and innovations in technology, there is a growing interest in the adoption of telemedicine services. Regardless of the lack of good-quality evidence supporting the cost-effectiveness of telemedicine, evidence already indicates that telemedicine, even with extra costs, helps in reducing the inequalities in the provision of primary health care. Telemedicine has the potential to overcome geographical barriers and contribute to closing the rural-urban healthcare gap in Australia and many other regions. Although research examining different teledentistry applications has found that this technology can be successfully integrated into different settings, there is little active teledentistry practice in Australia. The integration of telemedicine into the mainstream oral health system is a complex and collaborative process in which numerous factors at individual, infrastructure and organisational levels are involved. Addressing the barriers that delay the implementation of a teledentistry service can provide valuable insights into its lack of acceptance and establish an evidence base that can help to inform future decisions about the benefits of teledentistry.
由于口腔护理服务在农村或偏远地区的分布极不均衡，得不到充分服务的人群会向非牙科护理提供者寻求口腔护理。在此背景下，再加上技术成本的降低和创新，人们对采用远程医疗服务的兴趣日益浓厚。尽管缺乏高质量证据支持远程医疗的成本效益，但已有证据表明，即使需要额外成本，远程医疗也有助于减少初级卫生保健提供方面的不平等现象。远程医疗有潜力克服地理障碍，并有助于缩小澳大利亚和许多其他地区城乡医疗保健差距。尽管对不同远程牙科应用的研究发现，这项技术可以成功融入不同环境，但澳大利亚的远程牙科实践却很少。将远程医疗整合到主流口腔卫生系统是一个复杂的协作过程，涉及个人、基础设施和组织层面的众多因素。解决阻碍远程牙科服务实施的障碍，可以为其未被接受的情况提供有价值的见解，并建立一个证据基础，有助于为未来关于远程牙科益处的决策提供参考。
