Interactive Technology and the New Paradigm for Healthcare

Health-care provider's skills can be enhanced through teleoperations, advanced software, super-performance hardware and networking, whilst health care itself can be better accessed through remote telemedicine. Costs can be lowered through flexible manufacturing, just-in-time inventory and best-in-class business management. Such improvements may be brought about by the use of interactive technology, which can be applied to health care by involving: robotics; computer vision; simulation; artificial intelligence; image manipulation and storage; data gloves; and man-machine interfaces.;Various care programmes are introducing various technologies - such as simulation, visualization and robotics - in health-care services for patients, the elderly and people with disabilities. This book addresses the following from the end-user's perspective: technology transfer; telerobotics; telemedicine; education and training; and virtual reality. It shows the reader how leading-edge interactive technologies will affect the future of medical and surgical practice by improving access, quality and continuity of health care while reducing cost.