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From science fiction to telemedicine: The surprising 150-year history of long-range medical treatment
Medical Xpress August 11, 2024
In 1874, a surgeon in South Australia telegraphed wound care instructions for a patient 2,000 kilometers away. A few years later, in 1879, a letter in The Lancet medical journal suggested physicians use the telephone to cut down on unnecessary patient visits.
As the telephone and telegraph spread, the idea of telemedicine—literally “healing at a distance”—inspired science fiction writers to conjure up new ways of treating patients across great distances.
Real-world technology has developed in tandem with scifi speculation ever since. Today, certain kinds of telemedicine have become commonplace, while other futuristic tools are in the offing.
The radio doctor and the teledactyl
In his 1909 short story The Machine Stops, English novelist E.M. Forster described a telemedicine apparatus that,...
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