Telepsychiatry in South Africa--Present and Future (Report‪)‬

Telepsychiatry is one of the most longstanding telemedicine disciplines, having started over a century ago with the inception of the telephone; its modern form dates from about 1960. Telepsychiatry uses information and computer technology for diagnosis, therapy, follow-up, forensic purposes, pharmacotherapy management, psychiatric education, etc. Telecommunication links between a remote site and another to which a request/referral is made, allow data transfer (e.g. of videoconferencing images, history, reports and teaching material). Links range from telephone lines to rapid-transfer wireless links. Two or more persons at different locations (typically, a psychiatrist and a patient) most frequently use interactive videoconferencing for the provision of psychiatric expertise not otherwise available at the sender's (i.e. patient's) location. Enormous progress in telepsychiatry and all forms of telemedicine has been made recently, owing to rapidly decreasing costs of computing power, and larger data transfer capacity and storage, which allow telepsychiatry to provide unprecedented access to mental health services, and especially in rural areas. (1) Videoconferencing v. face-to-face