Making the Most of Virtual Expertise in Telemedicine and Telehealth Environments

Virtual expertise is a critical component of telehealth projects and it needs to be effectively managed if telehealth is to deliver on its potential. There are many issues within telehealth that relate in some way to the management of knowledge and we identify from a range of papers these specific issues. We propose a virtual expertise platform that provides the basic building blocks for effect leveraging of expertise in this domain. The platform includes management directives and goals, a collaborative culture, an appropriate ICT platform and a knowledge tools layer that interact facilitate knowledge sharing and ultimately improved patient care. We also emphasise how social media tools can be used as part of the knowledge tools layer to improve virtual knowledge sharing before and after the telehealth events.