IfG.CC -
Institute for eGovernment

Health services that would usually cost hundreds of dollars and hours in travel are now just a click away for the many rural patients requiring specialist appointments.

Telehealth is fast capturing the attention of rural communities, connecting patients with specialists hundreds of kilometres away via a Skype-like system.

The technology means patients' travel costs are dramatically reduced and, in some cases, eliminated.

The National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) awarded the funds to UQ's Centre of Research Excellence (CRE) in Telehealth led by Professor Len Gray, Director of the UQ Centre for Online Health.

Health Minister Lawrence Springborg said, via videolink from Alpha Hospital on Friday, he hoped for similar results as the technology-based services were expanded across rural communities Alpha, Eidsvold, Moura, Kowanyama, Normanton, Roma and Bedourie.

He said the video consultations with doctors in other hospitals had benefits for patients and doctors who did not have to travel as far and the travel savings could be invested into the system for further enhancements.

Telehealth in the Western Downs region will reduce the burden on families who currently have to travel hundreds of kilometres to see a specialist in a major city, saving them stress and time away from home.

Nadia’s 13-year-old son Jacob is a type 1 insulin dependent diabetic who requires frequent trips to Mackay for check-ups.

Telehealth offers patients in regional and remote areas access to medical services via video link.

The family lives in Clermont and Nadia was making the three-hour drive with Jacob every six weeks but now, since using Telehealth, they only make the trip once every three months.

The technology means clinicians can liaise directly with patients, bedside, and calculate medication and progress. Warwick Hospital director of nursing Megan O'Shannessy said the system was a breakthrough in Warwick's health sector. "It's really exciting," she said.

She said it meant people didn't have to travel to Brisbane or Toowoomba.

And regional patients in disaster situations could avoid evacuation if skilled specialists can help via video link-ups to isolated communities.

But, for now, regional Queensland healthcare providers are excited about being able to admit patients to their doctorless hospitals again, instead of shipping them off to the nearest facility with a medical clinician.

To guide GPs through telehealth consultations and provide a safety and quality framework for patients and GPs, the RACGP is working on a number of telehealth initiatives, including the development of the telehealth standards for general practitioners and an online telehealth training and education module that will be available next year.

The College is pleased to announce that the Department of Health and Ageing has recently engaged the RACGP in a project to develop the telehealth standards on video consultations for general practitioners.

The Happy, Healthy and at Home project has connected 50 older people living independently, including a 94-year-old client, to nurses for their medication management for the past two years.

The pilot project will end in June, when RDNS and La Trobe University’s Australian Institute for Primary Care and Ageing will evaluate its success and consider the potential for the project to be expanded for a range of uses.

The ACT and NSW governments are trialling a ''telehealth'' system that uses video technology to allow Canberra doctors to give clinical consultations to critically ill patients in southern NSW.

The project is the second agreement on health to be announced by the two governments in the past month and follows last month's launch of a surgical trial giving Canberra doctors and patients access to Queanbeyan Hospital.

It has “real potential” to improve access to specialists for rural and remote Australians, the RDDA says.

The measure will allow patients in rural, regional and outer metropolitan areas to “attend” consultations with distant specialists via video-conferencing from the convenience of their local GP clinic or other local healthcare facilities.

E-Health is a government funded program to have people's health information available throughout Australia.

Think if you will that you are travelling around Australia and you have health issues.

While you are in Port Headland you have a heart attack and the nurses and doctors know nothing about your health let alone what medications you are on and you are in no state to talk let alone remember anything about your medication.

Under Labor's $620 million telehealth initiative both city specialists and any healthcare worker physically with the patient will receive additional Medicare rebates.

Federal Health Minister Nicola Roxon said GPs, nurses, midwives and Aboriginal health workers who sit with patients during their video consultation will receive their usual Medicare fee plus an extra 35 per cent.

Mr Bailey said technology was providing people with better access to medical specialists each day, but faster internet speeds would improve health outcomes even further.

He said the Federal Government had already introduced incentives for health practitioners to embrace technology and consult via the internet.

Telehealth involves using videoconferencing for medical consultations between health professionals and patients, and can also be used for supervision and education purposes.

In addition, the innovative technology enables greater connectivity between healthcare professionals.

Of all of the many promises the NBN is supposed to fulfill, its role in the delivery of electronic health is probably the most contentious.

Society has a very real problem of escalating health costs for services struggling to meet the increasing burden of ageing, chronic disease and obesity. Alongside this is the promise of improved efficiencies brought about by computerisation and faster broadband networks.

One In Four Lives, a group of industry stakeholders, has released a white paper in Canberra, to stimulate discussion and is urging the government to start a national scheme to take control of a ballooning health budget.

One of the core principles of belief in why Australia needs to deploy a full fibre-to-the-premises (FttP) National Broadband Network (NBN) across the country is telehealth. However, in a panel session that should give FttP proponents nightmares, a quartet of health experts have identified the issues with increasing the use of telehealth as being cultural and operational, not bound by the speed of a data connection.

The Bligh Government spent $30 million rolling the digital consultation equipment out across the state in what was touted as a revolution in bush health care that would enable patients to consult with specialists without having to leave their home towns.

However, health minister Lawrence Springborg said, so far it had largely failed to deliver.

Queensland Country Life was on the ground with Mr Springborg and medical officials in the western Queensland centre as the Minister announced an expansion of the telehealth network to seven additional evaluation sites.