The significance of telemedicine in a rural emergency department

Author

Stamford, Peter ; Bickford, Thomas ; Hsiao, Henry ; Mattern, William

Author_Institution

Sch. of Med., North Carolina Univ., Chapel Hill, NC, USA

Volume

18

Issue

4

fYear

1999

Firstpage

45

Lastpage

52

Abstract

Telemedicine is evolving into an important tool in delivering services to emergency departments (EDs) in rural areas. However, we do not yet know what kinds of services can be effectively delivered or the degree to which these services might be useful. In this pilot study, a high-speed, high-quality video, 24-hour ATM (asynchronous transfer mode) network linked a rural ED to an ED of a major medical center. The objective was to measure the utilization of telemedical consulting services. Specifically, this one-year study examined the significance of telemedicine in changing diagnosis and treatment and the influence on patient transfers.

Keywords

asynchronous transfer mode; biomedical communication; multimedia communication; radiology; telemedicine; video codecs; video coding; MultiMedia eXplorer codec; consulting services; high-speed high-quality video ATM network; patient transfers; rural emergency department; rural hospital; support medicine; telediagnosis; telemedicine; teleradiology; treatment in remote areas; video compression protocols; Assembly; Asynchronous transfer mode; Biomedical engineering; Disaster management; Hospitals; Information analysis; Medical diagnostic imaging; Medical treatment; Project management; Telemedicine; Academic Medical Centers; Computer Communication Networks; Computer Systems; Databases as Topic; Emergency Service, Hospital; Hospitals, Community; Hospitals, Rural; Humans; North Carolina; Patient Transfer; Pilot Projects; Remote Consultation; Teleradiology; Video Recording;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Engineering in Medicine and Biology Magazine, IEEE

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0739-5175

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/51.775488

Filename

775488