HEMODIALYSIS PATIENT-MANAGEMENT BY TELEMEDICINE - DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION

The authors describe the design and implementation of a personal compu ter based telemedicine system for managing patients by telemedicine. W ith three identical systems connected by high speed T1 lines, the phys ician (or allied healthcare giver) can interact, by videoconferencing, and by using multimedia files, with patients at two remote hemodialys is sites. The physician is able to visualize specifically the patient' s fistula/graft, and auscultate fistula, heart and lung sounds, and in corporate still pictures or audio sounds in the patient's multimedia d atabase folder, which also contains an electronic and paperless medica l record. In addition there is the capability of downloading into this database all the machine parameters during dialysis.