Telemedicine Services in Arctic Environments – Challenges for Successful Implementation

The growing interest in Arctic areas, both from professionals
and tourists, is a challenge for the health care system in areas
suffering from extreme weather conditions, long distances and
poor communication network coverage. Offering adequate
health care services for people who live in these Arctic areas
might be very difficult in part of the year. Access to medical
services, in particular specialist services, is limited. In cases
of emergency such as a large-scale accident, the system is
further challenged. This paper discusses major challenges for
successful implementation of telemedicine services in Arctic
environments, with a special focus on handling accidents.
Lessons learned from less challenging regions will be addressed
in order to recommend a common set of critical success
factors for implementing telemedicine service.