José Badía, Beltrán Mena, Alejandro Ríos, Marcelo Neira
School of Medicine and Service of Computing and Telecommunications, Catholic University of Chile, Santiago, Chile.
Purpose: To describe a succesful strategy for implementing a research laboratory in telemedicine, adjusting the developments to local conditions. Methods: A project based on the following key elements was proposed to potencial sponsors: a) lack of specialists in several areas b) adecuate number of specialists in the capital region c) lowering costs and increasing capacity of computing and digital telecommunications d) funding from the government or private enterprises could benefit them financially, improving health as well e) Universities are the best suited for multidisciplinary research, and f) research in telemedicine should be developed locally. The applications were developed considering the impact upon the health care system, technical feasibility and the possibility of carrying out on large scale within the short term. Technological premises considered the lowest bandwidth and hardware costs in order to get the best cost-benefit results as well as the use of open standards. Results: Several private corporations funded the research. The group is teamed by the Catholic University with its health care system, the Chilean Telecommunications Company (CTC), Fore Systems®, Newbridge®, Kodak®, Silicon Graphics® and Apple®. The project has a dedicated fiberoptic ATM-OC3 network linking three medical Centers. CTC also provides links for national and international testing. Teleradiology, telepathology, ultrasound, interactive medical telelectures, endoscopy, endoscopic surgery, psychiatric consultation and email consultation are being developed. Conclusion: The strategy made possible the success of a large telemedicine project in Chile and could be implemented in similar developing countries.