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According to Alexander Vo, an associate professor in preventive medicine and community health, telemedicine is a helpful measure to be taken in order to help patients from a remote location. However, he says that problems have arose when telemedicine was used in relation to diaster relief. One example given is the earthquake in Haiti, when many technologies were donated by companies in order to promote the use of telemedicine for immediate disaster relief. Vo says that this technology was not used, especially within the first few weeks, because the locations were staffed with enough doctors. Further, even if the technology could be used, the doctors were not trained to use it, and there was no time to train them at that moment.Only after the voluntary doctors went back to their home towns could they be of any use in regard to telemedicine. The patients in need of special care could then connect with the doctors in the remote areas, however, there could be problems if the internet was down, or if the necessary hardware was destroyed due to the diaster. Even though the egagement in telemedicine was not the best for Haiti, it was seen to be of great help for a hurricane in Texas recently. Vo explains that telemedicine was successful because it was already established within the communities. The technology was available throughout the affected areas, and could be put to use immediately. The use of cell phones was also crucial, because many of the patients had pre-established access to doctors who could help diagnose and alleviate the problems of the patients in affected areas. Because the protocols were established prior to the disasters, the care was planed out to be available to the most amount of patients. Plans in advance can also taken into account the problem of damaged internet service, cables, and networks, and determine what the best plan of action is given the situation. Thus, the relief would allow the affected area to be back on track quickly, and efficientl

The USAID and FCC are currently working together trying to find the best ways to take advantage of telemedecine during natural disasters. Yet, it's not really the idea of promoting it's usage for many nations have already began using it to recover and aid those whom were highly wounded, or even those who weren't harmed to make sure they continue being healthy through telemedicine. The point of the unity between these two organizations is to improve it's usage so that connectivity is best no matter the type of natural disaster. It has been noticed that connectivity was a problem, causing an issue of reliability since doctors can no longer contact their patients due to loss in service. The telemedicine depends on the wireless networks available. Because a natural disaster has occur, many of these networks are no longer available since satellite dishes are destroyed and no longer work. Plus, many of the computers can become damaged internally and cause inaccaurate data within a telemedicine database. More than a millions dollars was given to the National Library of Medicine (NLM) so that improvements could be made immediately, in order to prevent the upcoming disasters. This will be tested during actual disasters, and later be improved after studying it's effects on network connections. But currently, computer scientists are creating the telemedicine to be provided on mobile devices such as a cell phone which can easily use RFID to track were a person is, or barcode scans to scan patient's papers to be sent into the medical field. This form of mobile telemedicine will impact greatly towards natural disasters for the reason that is mobile, unlike computer desktops.

The article is primarily about the increased usage of social networking sites for altruistic advances. Sites like Twitter and Facebook have become sources of information for people to discuss and come up with relief for the disasters occurring all over the world. Due to the increased usage of these networks, the perfect "central" location to reach out to many groups of people seems like the best option. According to the article, this is a great advancement and benefit for situations such as the disaster in Haiti. Facebook has reported that they have raised "hundreds of thousands" of dollars for the cause through "status updates, chat and micropayment systems." Twitter, specifically, is a method for people to share their motivational bits in their short Tweet updates. The article also brings about current effort of raising awareness and gaining a greater volunteer network for the upcoming Martin Luther Day holiday, for the Corporation for National Community Service. Most importantly, the end of the article brings about a great benefit of using the social networks to connect anyone in the world who wants to help, even if they are thousands of miles away. As seen, the hours spent online every week can be finally put to use for the greater good.

Even during natural disasters such as hurricanes, patients can get medical help because of telemedicine. The University of Texas Medical Branch have set up a consult service in the Houston Area in case of a devastating hurricane. The use of telephones in this situation is used to help provide people with medical attention. The doctors can have a consult to help them with triaging and diagnosing patients. This method however, is not reliable because it uses other industries' networks, which can cause problems with connecting. Data which is also backed up is also located far away from the site which may make it unreliable if it is forwarded manually. Then there are standards which must be applied to the use of the information being stored because there are health records of a general public and must be handled securely. 

Careful, when you say: "also located far away from the site which may make it unreliable if it is forwarded manually. " you make a faulty assumption about the causes of reliability problems.

"The collapse of traditional channels of communication in Haiti has again highlighted the role of social media and the internet in disasters. Twitter is being used as a prime channel for communications, while sites such as Ushahidi are providing maps detailing aid and damage. "

There are many patients that lack the specific care because of natural disasters, such as tsunamis and earthquakes, even blizzards. Companies such as polycom and Tandberg both provide this service that was originally meant for bigger businesses, and now these new markets are being serviced by the companies first made for these businesses. As a matter of fact, even telepsychiatry is also offered, or mental health care is also offered. If someone is from afar and needs care right away, then they will get it that easy, instead of waiting for days, they can wait have access to doctor help right away.

After the January earthquake in Haiti, many people were left under extremely bad health conditions, with little or no health care being at their service. Haiti is a poor country, and with a natural disaster like that occurring, medical treatment for those that required it to the minimal extent was rare, let alone for the people that needed to be operated upon (such as surgical patients). The solution that some United States officials found after attempting to help Haiti with this issue was telehealth, better known as telemedicine; telemedicine was initially used for space astronauts back in the 1960s. In the situation with Haiti however (better known as "real-time"), it essentially involves a video-conference between a patient and a health professional and/or doctor in a different location (often times in hospitals or offices). Also during certain operations however, a doctor at the scene will be conferencing with a specialist at a different geographical location through the uses and benefits of telemedicine. The main IT system involved in this situation with telemedicine is satellite connections. A satellite communication system requires a satellite to function. Thus, a satellite is in high orbit over the Earth (stationary or geosynchronous, which means that the speed of the satellite is complementary to the speed of the rotaion of the Earth, thus it will always remain above the same spot). A satellite dish on Earth is then directed at the satellite, and all the signals (voice & data information, television signals, etc.) are transmitted on an uplink. The satellite itself (while still in orbit outer space) has a receiving antenna mechanism which is able to capture the incoming signals towards it and is able to diverge them through an amplifying network.

continued.... After this process, it then re-transmits the signals to the designated receivers (these signals are waves that go upon a certain frequency). Depending on what the frequencies are, when it comes to telemedicine, the frequencies are repudicated for an instance, and the digital data is then linked to set receivers. These data packets are routed through satellite, which makes the end (whether it is a phone call or the merging of voice and data transmission such as video-conferencing) come along. The satellite may be compared to a ground-based signal, in which the signal points upward and it is later reflected down back at the user/client. Therefore, with sufficient bandwidth, Haiti is running on high-speed Internet access. As a result of this IT system involved (as well as the use of telemedicine), social and ethical issues emerge. The use of such IT devices and systems such as satellite linkage and telemedicine through video-conferencing was not present in Haiti even before the earthquake. However, with the aid of other countries, more advanced form of health care came into view. This is a breakthrough from the digital divide, where Haiti was not able to provide proper medical care for its citizens. Another issue that comes into play (vexing from the digital divide) is globalization. Doctors on the seen are able to provide their patients with the best care by either consulting a specialist from a remote area far away, or the patients who require health care have video-conferences with doctors in order to discuss health related issues. This breaks down the barrier in which Haitians were facing with little or no medical support.