The six-month-old program, a $7.2 million piece of a larger $620 million telehealth push, has seen 1,200 doctors apply for the $6,000 grants. The goal is for teleconferencing to host some 500,000 consultations by 2015, reducing the need for patients and doctors to travel. It's targeted specifically at GPs in remote areas who may not have access to specialists and experts in certain medical disciplines.
But critics say that doctors have, in many cases, been flummoxed by the technology. In some cases, it's been too complicated for doctirs to use easily. In others, it won't communicate with other videoconferencing software other doctors have downloaded.
''It's a great ... initiative but the doctors should have been provided with more support and guidance about how to implement the technology,'' the chief executive of Hunter Nursing, David du Plessis, said. ''They don't have time to go on to IT forums to sort it out, so they defaulted to Skype.''
The Miscrosoft (Nasdaq: MSF) video calling technology has worked better than some of the more complex technology, said the head of Australia's rural doctors association.
'There is a whole range of technologies and, in establishing video-conferencing, [doctors] are not going to go out and buy some extravaganza of a system, they are going to stick with the simple stuff,'' Dr. Paul Mara said.
Research suggests that enterprises, SMBs and even individuals are eager to adopt some form of videoconferencing. But, until it's simple and users are sure they're going to be able to reach each other with a quality product, you can be sure growth is going to be less than the industry is hoping for.
There, literally, isn't a week that goes by that someone doesn't ask me about videoconferencing--the technology, how easy it is to use and, generally, for a suggestion on what service is best. It's worrisome that docs in Oz have cast their vote.
Skype is the best choice? Really?
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Jim O'Neill
Quelle/Source: Fierce Enterprise Communications, 09.01.2012
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