Aviation medicine: challenges for telemedicine.
The number and seriousness of medical problems on passenger-carrying aircraft in flight are increasing. Medical incidents occur at a rate of approximately 10-50 per million passengers carried. Medical equipment carried on commercial aircraft is limited to three items: a first-aid kit, an emergency medical kit and sometimes an automatic external defibrillator. Telephone medicine, a lower level of telemedicine support, is well established for commercial air operations. The availability of satellite telecommunications on passenger-carrying aircraft permits more sophisticated forms of telemedicine. Recent telemedicine experiments have involved the transmission of three-lead electrocardiograms (ECGs), heart rate, blood pressure, arterial oxygen saturation, end-tidal CO2, respiratory rate, body temperature and realtime video. The challenge is to demonstrate that such techniques are practicable, improve patient outcomes and are cost-effective.
Ferrer-Roca
O
O
Department of Anatomía Patológica, University of La Laguna, Tenerife, Canary Islands. catai@teide.net
Díaz De León
R D
RD
de Latorre
F J
FJ
Suárez-Delgado
M
M
Di Persia
L
L
Cordo
M
M
D000337:Aerospace Medicine / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence / Q000379:methods* / Q000639:trends; D016887:Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation / Q000379:methods; D004638:Emergency Treatment / Q000379:methods* / Q000592:standards; D005392:First Aid / Q000592:standards; D006801:Humans; D017216:Telemedicine / Q000191:economics / Q000592:standards* / Q000639:trends