Journal of telemedicine and telecare
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We carried out a prospective study of teleconsulting in orthopaedics. A commercial videoconferencing system was connected by three ISDN lines between the Satakunta Central Hospital in Pori and the Orton Orthopaedic Hospital in Helsinki, 240 km away. A document camera was used to transfer radiographic images and paper documents. ⋯ The quality of the radiographic images transferred with the document camera was good or very good in 17 cases and satisfactory in three cases. None of the patients had experienced videoconferencing before; 87% of them thought that teleconsultation was a good or very good method and the rest felt that it was satisfactory. All patients wanted to participate in teleconsultations again and most would have recommended it to other patients.
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The diffusion of telemedicine services in Australia over the last four years has been uneven. Some of the major barriers to the adoption of telemedicine relate to the nature of the industry, including its immaturity, the limited telecommunications infrastructure, the lack of appropriate dialogue between vendors and buyers about solutions required, and the lack of partnerships in the industry. ⋯ There are, of course, other substantial organizational, financial and attitudinal barriers to the adoption of telemedicine. Further development of telemedicine in Australia will require detailed assessment of these matters.
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Randomized Controlled Trial Clinical Trial
Telemedicine in the emergency department: a randomized controlled trial.
Emergency physicians and nurses were trained in telemedicine techniques in two emergency departments, one rural (low volume) and one suburban (high volume). Fifteen patient complaints were selected as appropriate for the study. Of 122 patients who met the inclusion criteria, 104 (85%) consented to participate. ⋯ There were no significant differences (P > 0.05) for occurrence of 72 h return visits, need for additional care or overall patient satisfaction. The average patient throughput time (from admission to discharge) was 106 min for the telemedicine group and 117 min for the control group. Telemedicine was a satisfactory technique for the chosen group of patients in the emergency department and was acceptable to the participants.
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Randomized Controlled Trial Clinical Trial
Telemedicine and cardiopulmonary resuscitation: the value of video-link and telephone instruction to a mock bystander.
We evaluated cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) performed by persons with no previous experience on a resuscitation dummy. Subjects were randomized into four groups, one of which had no instruction. The other three groups were instructed for 3 min in mock CPR by a supervisor using a telephone, a video-link, or directly in person. ⋯ Video-link instruction was comparable with direct observer instruction. There was no significant difference between previously trained subjects and the intervention groups. Video-link instruction can produce significant improvements in the quality of CPR in mock resuscitations for persons with no resuscitation training.