The Croatian telemedicine.
Telemedicine developed in Croatia in two phases. The first phase during the 1970s was limited because of insufficient technology and scarce resources. But that phase was important as a learning process and the preparatory stage for the promising future. The communications infrastructure was heavily destroyed during the 1991-92 war but it was reconstructed and rebuilt as a modern technology based on optical fibres. The new technical and technological infrastructure was the base for the development of CARNet (Croatian Academic and Research Network). CARNet was linked to the Internet and enabled the international exchange of information for the scientific community. Telemedicine projects started firstly as pilot projects around the same time as in other countries. They were financially covered mostly by the Ministry of Science either directly or through the CARNet. The telemedicine projects, like telepathology, teleradiology, teleneurosurgery, teleeducation, developed in a very sophisticated way and are now in the phase of implementation into the routine health practice. Some projects are still in the pilot phase, but thanks to highly trained professionals, they are promising and it can be expected that with the growing economic stuation they will be implemented soon.
Kovai
L
L
Andrija Stampar School of Public Health, Zagreb Medical School, Rockefellerova 4, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia.
Lonari
S
S
Paladino
J
J
Kern
J
J
D003195:Computer Communication Networks / Q000639:trends; D017523:Croatia; D005544:Forecasting; D006801:Humans; D010865:Pilot Projects; D017216:Telemedicine / Q000639:trends*