Tele-affiliation in medical education: experience from the international program at Yale Office of Telemedicine.
OBJECTIVE
Telemedicine is developed in response to the needs of users that results in a more viable model. Yale has developed a process called tele-affiliation to combine services that are customized to the international client's needs.


METHODS
Several defined steps compose the tele-affiliation process. The Yale-Greece telemedicine program is used as an illustration of this process. Some of the programs developed in response to Greek needs include breast cancer clinics, women's health clinics and tele-homecare monitoring for post-operative and chronically ill patients.


RESULTS
Tele-affiliation creates on infrastructure that has the potential to change the method of health care delivery. By using the infrastructure created by the tele-affiliation process, templates for disease management, as well as health promotion and education can be delivered to a global audience.


CONCLUSIONS
A tele-affiliation education environment has been developed and tested between Yale University School of Medicine and Greece resulting in an improved infrastructure for health education and management.
Condos
S G
SG
Yale Office of Telemedicine, Yale Medical School, New Haven, CT, USA.
Stamkopoulos
T
T
Selles
J M
JM
Merrell
R C
RC
D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis; D003237:Connecticut; D020375:Education, Distance / Q000458:organization & administration*; D005260:Female; D006115:Greece; D006801:Humans; D007194:India; D007393:International Educational Exchange; D009935:Organizational Affiliation; D012011:Red Cross; D012577:Schools, Medical / Q000458:organization & administration*; D017216:Telemedicine / Q000458:organization & administration*; D014584:User-Computer Interface; D014932:Women's Health Services