Cybercare: combining healthcare and cyberspace in the 21st century

We discuss the origins of the modern hospital-based tertiary care system. We define how this system was a product of a large-scale medical disaster that prompted the invention of the modern hospital. We will then similarly describe the disaster that prompted the beginning of telemedicine. Following, we review the history of telemedicine and the development of telesurgery and present the state-of-the-art in telesurgery and other advanced telemedicine technologies. We will then define cyber through a discussion of cybernetics and cyberspace. We present the concept of the digital physician and a cybercare vision of a new healthcare system. We will then predict what type of large-scale medical disaster would prompt the creation of a cybercare healthcare system. Finally, we discuss the challenges to be faced in the 21^st century.