Paediatric cardiac telemedicine--transmitting echocardiography images in Wales.
We started a telemedicine service for paediatric cardiology work in 2006, enabling transmission of echocardiography images via videoconferencing equipment to the specialist paediatric cardiac department at Cardiff for review and/or diagnosis. The system has been used regularly for a range of paediatric cardiology cases. Despite increasing the transmission bandwidth to 1 Mbit/s the transmission of live echocardiography was still considered to be suboptimum. Nonetheless, the implementation of a simple telemedicine service has demonstrated the feasibility of transmitting echocardiography images via videoconferencing equipment for diagnosis and second opinions.
South West Wales Cancer Network, c/o Meurig Ward, Bronglais General Hospital, Aberystwyth, UK. delyth.lewis2@wales.nhs.uk
Delyth
D
Lewis
Sheryl
S
Morris
Orhan
O
Uzun
Glynis
G
Tranter
D002309:Cardiology / Q000379:methods*; D004452:Echocardiography; D017598:Efficiency, Organizational; D004867:Equipment Design; D006801:Humans; D008491:Medical Informatics Applications; D010372:Pediatrics / Q000379:methods*; D019114:Remote Consultation / Q000379:methods*; D017216:Telemedicine; D049269:Videoconferencing / Q000295:instrumentation; D014852:Wales