IfG.CC - The Institute for eGovernment

The model community would be based at the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners in South Melbourne, where it would provide practitioners and software vendors with the opportunity to test the soon-to-be-introduced voluntary national healthcare identifier system, according to NEHTA clinical lead Dr Nathan Pinskier.

Medical superintendent Dr Brad Murphy says he is working to establish the facility with a Brisbane psychiatrist for patients in the Eidsvold region, west of Bundaberg.

Dr Murphy says the region has adequate facilities to support the service and he is currently investigating funding options.

“Since the service began in November 2000, more than 10,000 telehealth consultations have been carried out for children living in 97 regional and remote areas in Queensland. This amount of activity makes it the largest telepaediatric service ever reported throughout the world,” Dr Smith said.

It's two in the morning and Eric Sclavos is in his home office, looking at a radiology request from the emergency department of Logan Hospital, south of Brisbane.

The patient was involved in a car accident and hospital staff need an urgent assessment before deciding if surgery is needed.

The 18-month Telehealth Lifestyle Coordination (TLC) project will monitor and manage older people with chronic disease, who live in their own homes.

Supported by Ipswich Community Aid and Tunstall Healthcare, the pilot aims to demonstrate that telehealth solutions offer a viable alternative to hospital care.

The $352 million initiative will give people living in rural, remote and outer metropolitan locations the ability to access medical specialist consultations online.

Minister for Health, Nicola Roxon, said the new service – to start on 1 July next year – would provide about 495,000 services over four years, as well as training and incentives for specialists, GPs and other health professionals.

The centre, which uses video to link specialists to patients thousands of kilometres away, is one of a handful in the country that have the facilities, and its services are only possible because the doctors at the centre and with the patient are paid a salary by Queensland Health, which also funds the technology involved.

The centre's deputy director, Anthony Smith, predicts the number of online consultations will jump if Labor wins the election and releases its promised funding for online consultations from July 1 next year.

Various systems -- collectively known as "telemedicine", in which patients consult doctors remotely using systems such as real-time video links -- are already available for such long-distance consultations.

The proposal by a professor from the University of Notre Dame had initially been designed for Goodooga residents so they could see a doctor in Sydney without leaving town.

The Murdi Paaki Regional Enterprise Corporation has been discussing the project with the Federal Government and says the Commonwealth has indicated its support for developing the initiative.

Telehealth video conferencing and live telemetrics equipment for trauma and critical will be extended to all 16 regional Victorian hospitals administered under the Loddon Mallee Rural Health Alliance following a successful, 20-month trial across four of the units.

The initial $5.2 million trial was funded under the Federal Government’s $118.6 million Clever Networks initiative and took place from June 2008 across hospitals in Mildura, Swan Hill, Machuka and Bendigo, connected to four metropolitan hospitals in Melbourne. The trial involved the deployment of eight mobile Virtual Trauma and Critical Care Units (ViTCCU) and seven fixed units across the regional hospitals, along with software and smart vitals devices from a consortium of companies including Telstra, Cerner, KPMG and Polycom.

WA Health Minister Kim Hames said that the new technology would reduce the need for patients to travel long distances to receive health care and would save the WA health system around $1.5 million every year.

"Delivery of high quality health services is a team approach and for rural and remote patients, the health team may not always be within either the same location or within the state health system," he said.

The Telehealth system, which links patients with health professionals across the state via online video was unveiled today in Karratha by Health Minister Kim Hames.

The system will enable the health sector to save money by no longer having to pay for patients to travel under the Patient Assisted Travel Scheme. Patients and their local doctors would have the option of discussing treatment with specialists in different locations using the system.

The Barcoo and Diamantina councils are planning to put about $3 million into fibre-optic networks in the region to complement the Federal Government's national broadband network.

Barcoo Mayor Bruce Scott says rural schools and businesses cannot move ahead with technological changes unless services are upgraded now.

As part of Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s $620 million telehealth initiative, the Australian government is funding video hook-ups between medical specialists and patients. The nation’s Medicare program is offering 50-percent bonuses to specialists who adopt telehealth technology and 35-percent bonuses to doctors, nurses and midwives who participate in video consults with patients.

The initiative – which Gillard had promised to enact during her election campaign last year – has the backing of the Rural Doctors Association of Australia (RDAA), which said it has “real potential” to improve access to specialists for rural and remote Australians.

The University of Queensland’s Health-e-Regions telehealth project aims to save patients from the stress, costs and inconvenience of travelling significant distances to see a specialist in a major city.

Currently the project is being implemented at select places in Tripura and Bihar. Department has received such proposals from states like J&K, Punjab, Jharkhand, Orissa and West Bengal. The department is planning a mega roll-out across the country under the 'Ayush and Public Health Scheme', sources said.

Gulmammadov said that Azerbaijan participates in all actions on this issue. If all the issues meet interests of the Republic, Azerbaijan is ready to take part in these projects.

The minister's remarks came on Friday while on island for the Governor-General's annual visit to the Rand Memorial Hospital, where he announced the new initiative dubbed 'Telemedicine.'

Dr. Minnis was addressing staff at the Princess Margaret Hospital during the annual hospital visit from the Governor General.

"I am indeed excited about the tremendous potential this has for enhanced service delivery in our Family Islands. After reviewing and watching the telemedicine project just the other day, listening to patients' heartbeats in Abaco via PMH and being able to examine a patient's ear from Abaco via PMH, I am convinced that in the future PMH will be able to house a cardiac clinic for those patients in Abaco here from PMH," Dr. Minnis said.

It allows doctors in New Providence to examine patients and consult with doctors on Family Islands without actually being face to face, according to health officials.

Doctors of the Public Hospitals Authority and Princess Margaret Hospital on Monday launched the telemedicine pilot project.