The federal Government has endorsed a telemedicine trial by Victorian health authorities, using videoconferencing technology that has already been used successfully in NSW.
The 12-month trial, which began last December but was unveiled by Communications Minister Senator Conroy at Victoria's Alfred Hospital last night, will allow Melbourne medical specialists to use videoconferencing systems to assess patients in regional trauma and critical care units up to 600 km away.
It's hoped the trial will prove Victoria can save millions of dollars lost needlessly moving patients to specialist doctors using costly ground and air ambulance services.
The trial builds on work known as the ViTCCU (Virtual Trauma Critical Care Units) initiative done by the CSIRO, Telstra and NSW Health.
It is being conducted across a group of eight Loddon Mallee Health Alliance facilities in southern Victoria.
The trial will use mobile carts equipped with high-definition teleconferencing equipment patient data sharing systems to link with conferencing rooms established in metropolitan hospitals.
The alliance's chief information officer, Bruce Winzar, said the system could make up for shortages of expert medical staff in the bush.
"There is certainly a chronic shortage of specialists in regional and rural Australia, and it is very difficult to attract high-calibre practitioners to country areas.
If we can't do that, this is one way, we believe, by using high-definition imaging and hi-tech to allow that to happen," Mr Winzar said.
Dr Sol Zalstein, emergency director at Bendigo Health, said the system provided a "quantum leap" in remote diagnosis of critically ill patients.
"Having been involved in transport of critically ill patients and being involved in telephone conversations about such patients and having now had the opportunity to use this new equipment, I can tell you the difference between having a phone call with a doctor in a regional hospital and trying to get an understanding of exactly what's going on with their patient. It certainly provides the doctor in the region with much better advice than would otherwise be provided," Dr Zalstein said.
Australian Medical Association federal president Dr Rosanna Capolingua said there was no substitute for personal patient-doctor interaction given the complexities of patient-doctor relationships.
However, she said, that was more relevant to early consultations in general practice. Videoconferencing technology was appropriate for trauma care scenarios.
"Using the communication technology as well as clinical experience and skill is an extra tool of great value," Dr Capolingua said.
The Loddon-Mallee trial is being run at a cost of about $11 million, of which $5.4 million has been sourced from the federal government's Clever Networks fund.
Mr Winzar said the trial would lead to the creation of new protocols for using e-health in trauma and critical care in Victoria.
However, the original trial was not without its challenges. Dr Patrick Cregan, surgery program director with Sydney West Area Health Services, said the service was still running successfully.
However, attempts to widen its take-up to Lithgow had become entangled in industrial relations problems and consequently abandoned.
Other sources close to the Nepean trial said CSIRO and Telstra parted ways over differences on how to commercialise the technology.
It's understood the disagreements arose after the service was moved from the State Rail Authority dark fibre connections to Telstra's commercial network.
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Andrew Colley
Quelle/Source: Australian IT, 24.03.2009
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