The history of telemedicine begins with the invention of the telephone in 1876. The telephone brought long distance communication to the forefront. Soon physicians could talk to patients over the phone and diagnose problems without seeing that patient in person.
In the 1920’s, Dr. Hugo Gernsback invented the idea of a Teledactlyl. His idea was to have a tool that would allow doctors to see their patients through a viewscreen. His innovative idea was printed in Science and Invention.
In the 1960’s, NASA started researching ways to incorporate telemedicine in order to provide healthcare to their astronauts. In 1989, the world wide web was invented and expands the capabilities of telemedicine.
In 2003, Skype was released, bringing video chat to the mainstream. In 2013, Doxy.me created at the University of Utah for a prenatal study. In 2014, Doxy.me was released to the public. Providers can now securely videochat with their patients. As of May 2019, Doxy.me has over 50,000 providers providing over 3 million minutes of telemedicine per month.
