Doctors go bush on video

Telstra has launched a high-definition videoconferencing solution which will provide more than 6.5 million regional and rural Australians greater access to care from city health professionals.

The Telstra HD Telehealth Solution enables patients to receive treatment from local medical staff, collaborating at the same time with city doctors using high-definition video. The launch follows a successful 20-month use of the solution at all eight hospitals in the Loddon Mallee Rural Health Alliance (LMRHA) in Victoria.

Bernadette Gibbons, National General Manager Healthcare, Telstra Enterprise and Government, said with more than 6.5 million Australians living outside the major cities in Australia, a high proportion of the population currently needs to travel long distances to receive the same level of care as those living in inner cities.

“Telstra is committed to improving the access to care that the Australian health system can deliver to their patients through the latest technology across high-speed broadband networks,” Gibbons said.

“The Telstra HD Telehealth solution means patients living in regional and rural areas can access similar levels of care as patients in metropolitan areas via high-definition videoconferencing, real-time monitoring, highly accurate imaging and management tools. This helps to promote greater accuracy in diagnoses and could help reduce the likelihood of treatment errors while at the same time proving more convenient for both patients and doctors, and reduces travel costs,” Gibbons said.

The launch comes after a successful deployment at LMRHA in Victoria. The Telstra HD Telehealth Solution helped its Virtual Trauma and Critical Care Unit enable trauma specialists at metropolitan hospitals to work at the same time with emergency department teams at LMRHA hospitals in regional Victoria. In addition to making available a broader range of care services for patients, the alliance has realised significant savings in both time, costs and resources such as local ambulances.

“The Virtual Trauma Critical Care Unit pilot easily demonstrated the value of this technology solution in regional Victoria. At LMRHA, we are really excited at the potential of this solution to deliver ongoing cost and resource efficiencies, improve patient care and ultimately save lives,” said Bruce Winzar, CIO, LMRHA.

The Telstra HD Telehealth Solution is a fully managed service comprising a mobile medical cart modified with Polycom videoconferencing equipment and utilising the high-bandwidth Telstra Next IP network. It is the only solution in Australia that allows for up to five data-rich applications to run concurrently over the network which, when combined, further enhance the quality of patient diagnosis.