Volume 21, Issue 127 (1-2015)                   RJMS 2015, 21(127): 1-11 | Back to browse issues page

XML Persian Abstract Print


Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences
Abstract:   (6537 Views)
 

Background: ICT development has led to the emergence of virtual organizations phenomenon. Virtual hospital is one of these virtual organizations which present digital version of services and information of a hospital. In scientific literature, the term “virtual hospital” covers other concepts as well as the concept of a hospital. The study aimed at analyzing conceptual and practical evolution of virtual hospital. Considering these purpose different documents of the 1950s were reviewed and categorized under four conceptual terms. Practically, we related some actions to each term, as well.

 

Methods: This study was conducted as a review of articles collected from PubMed, Web of Sciences and Google Scholar databases.

 

Findings: Definitions of virtual hospital were differed from time to time. There is also different experience of implemented virtual hospitals in different countries. The first virtual hospital refers to the medical digital library to provide telemedicine services, in which then was named a virtual medical university. In the first decade of the 21st century, virtual hospital as a three-dimensional environment based on virtual reality emerged. Of those countries which adopted this technology were Germany, United Kingdom, United States, New Zealand, China and Singapore.

 Conclusion: By advancing virtual reality techniques and development of Nano-electronics, we will be witnesses of production of advanced “point of care systems" with a kind of interaction between patients and physicians in a way that they feel they are really in a real hospital with possibility of track and care of patients instead real hospitalization
Full-Text [PDF 250 kb]   (3154 Downloads)    
Type of Study: Research | Subject: Medical

Rights and permissions
Creative Commons License This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.