title: Telemedicine.
abstract: Ideally, health care is a communication-intensive process and information that relates to problem-solving and treatment regimens is exchanged constantly among health workers and between patients and their health-care providers. The primary health-care teams in a remote area of Queensland were linked with their base hospital, regional hospitals, a teaching hospital and an aerial retrieval team by means of AUSSAT 1. This article describes the changes in the health workers' consultations and in their patient-management practices when they used the satellite communications network. These changes resulted in improved health care and reduced some health-care costs.
authors.forename: D S
authors.initials: DS
authors.lastname: Watson
mesh_terms: D000488:Allied Health Personnel; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003142:Communication; D003253:Consultants; D003365:Costs and Cost Analysis; D003695:Delivery of Health Care / Q000191:economics / Q000639:trends*; D003933:Diagnosis; D005069:Evaluation Studies as Topic; D006801:Humans; D010549:Personal Satisfaction; D010865:Pilot Projects; D011793:Queensland; D013690:Television / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data / Q000639:trends; D014187:Transportation of Patients