IP telephony--new horizon for telemedicine and e-health.

Internet Protocol (IP) based networks are increasingly being used as alternatives to the traditional circuit-switched networks for carrying voice traffic. IP telephony is taking a firm hold in the world telecommunication market for a wide range of applications including telemedicine. The merits of IP telephony for telemedicine lie in cost-savings and new applications and functionalities it may render. In this paper, we try to discuss and analyze the implications of IP telephony on the evolution and deployment of telemedicine and e-health.