Meaning & use
telemedicine
Last updated
Meaning
noununcountable
The use of phone or video technology by doctors to diagnose and treat patients who are not in the same place.
Grammar: No plural; often used with 'through' or 'via': treatment through telemedicine.
Patterns
- use telemedicine
- through telemedicine
- telemedicine appointment
The clinic now offers telemedicine for patients who live far away.
During the pandemic, telemedicine became a common way to see a doctor.
She had a telemedicine consultation instead of going to the hospital.
Common combinations
- telemedicine appointment
- I scheduled a telemedicine appointment for next Tuesday.
- telemedicine platform
- The hospital uses a secure telemedicine platform for video calls.
- offer telemedicine
- More practices are starting to offer telemedicine to their patients.
- through telemedicine
- He received his diagnosis through telemedicine.
Synonyms and how they differ
- telehealth
- A wider term that includes not only treatment but also health education and administration done remotely.
- e-health
- Broader still, covering all electronic health services, not just remote consultations.
Word family
- telemedical adjective
- Relating to telemedicine, as in 'telemedical services'.
Commonly confused: telemedicine or telehealth?
telemedicine vs telehealth
Telehealth is the broader category; telemedicine refers specifically to clinical care provided remotely.
Practice
Choose the sentence that uses 'telemedicine' correctly.
Choose one answer.
'Telemedicine' is an uncountable noun meaning remote medical care, so 'Telemedicine allows...' is correct. Option 0 treats it as a medicine you can prescribe, option 2 uses it as a verb, and option 3 wrongly makes it plural.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “telemedicine”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.