Published online before print November 20, 2003, doi: 10.1161/01.STR.0000103837.32579.3C
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(Stroke. 2003;34:2957.)
© 2003 American Heart Association, Inc.
Original Contributions |
Editorial Comment— Telemedicine: The Solution to Provide Rural Stroke Coverage and the Answer to the Shortage of Stroke Neurologists and Radiologists
Director, OSF Stroke Network, Clinical Assistant Professor of Neurology, University of Illinois College of Medicine at Peoria, Chair, Peoria Tri-county ASA Operation Stroke Peoria, Illinois
An extract of the first 250 words of the full text is provided, because this article has no abstract. |
While the world seems to get "online" at an unbelievable speed, telemedicine is slow to follow. Other than teleradiology, which has been widely accepted in practice for several years, it is puzzling that the use of 2-dimensional live images on a computer or television screen is still being studied. While direct visualization or so-called seeing is believing is in the process of getting the statistic power to prove its worthiness, the world is faced with the increased demand and task to improve stroke care. The TESS project has hopefully provided the last bits of needed information to prove to the world that telemedicine for stroke care works. As Wiborg et al report, telemedicine is easy to set up ("online" within 10 minutes) and operate. It requires a low level of training and is interactive with accurate diagnoses. Furthermore, it assists in making a diagnosis other than stroke (26% in TESS). Despite in TESS the use of telemedicine was only once per consultation, it is certainly conceivable that the system can be used more frequently or as needed. The cost of $8000 for a stroke network center and $500 for each network site is very affordable.
As the TESS project reported, telemedicine offers reliable stroke coverage to rural areas. According to the Hospital Statistics 2002, of 4856 US hospitals reported,1 >50% of hospitals (<100 bed size) were located in rural areas. These institutions may have been able to provide image studies, but often there was no neurology or radiology coverage. Therefore,
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