High speed telemedicine links for rural emergency departments

This is an NTIA sponsored project to test the usefulness of telemedicine consultations between Emergency Departments (ED). A rural ED in Chatham, NC was linked to the ED at UNC Hospitals, a major medical center, by an ATM network running over the North Carolina Information Highway. ATM technology allowed for exceptional video quality and fast transfer of digitized radiographs. It was found that although usage of the system was low (less than 5%), in cases where it was utilized patient diagnosis was altered in 18% of these cases after a telediagnostic consultation. Patient diagnosis was altered in 27% of the cases following teleradiology consultation. Similarly treatment plans for patients were shown to change in 52% and 24% of the cases following emergency room and radiology consultations respectively.