Decision support telemedicine systems: A conceptual model and reusable templates.

Decision support telemedicine systems (DSTSs) are systems combining elements from telemedicine and clinical decision support systems. Although emerging more, these types of systems have not been given much attention in the literature. Our objective is to define the term DSTS, to propose a general DSTS model, and to propose model-based templates to aid DSTS development for three medical tasks. The definition, general model and model-based templates are based on a systematic literature search. To build the model, we use Unified Modeling Language class-models. The models were supplemented by class-attributes stemming from a recently suggested set of DSTS characterizing properties. We tested the applicability of the templates to new DSTSs found in a separate limited literature search. We provide a definition of DSTS, propose a conceptual model for understanding DSTSs, and synthesize a set of reusable templates, and examples for using them. The templates are shown to be relevant and are likely useful for modeling new systems. Our definition combines and harmonizes the various existing definitions. The conceptual model and the reusable modeling templates are demonstrated to be useful in understanding and modeling DSTSs during the early stages of their development.