From David Watson
I read with interest your leader on telemedicine (14 June, p 5).
In 1905 in the Netherlands, Willem Einthoven used his string galvanometer to transmit a patient’s electrocardiogram to a lab a mile away using a telephone line. Eighty years later, the Queensland government leased a transponder on the AUSSAT 1 telecoms satellite and established a health network to reach some remote Aboriginal communities in the far north of the state.
As the project director, I reported the benefits delivered to patients and providers. Follow-up clinics for hypertensive, diabetic and psychiatric patients were effectively conducted without the patient or consultant leaving their respective locations. In the event of an emergency in a remote location, the healthcarer was sometimes able to manage the situation with the assistance of a remote consultant.
The network enabled a greater range of medical conditions to be dealt with at remote sites, avoiding the expense of airborne evacuations. The Flying Doctor call-outs were reduced and the flights that were made were more economically scheduled.
Albany, Western Australia
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