Low-cost ISDN videoconferencing equipment for orthopaedic second opinions

We validated the application of low-cost ISDN videoconferencing equipment f or telemedicine. A telemedicine benchmark was designed and four different o ffice videoconferencing systems were evaluated, all using basic-rate ISDN c onnections (128 kbit/s). All the low-cost systems showed generally good or acceptable performance for clinical use. We also investigated the feasibili ty of videoconferencing for an orthopaedic second-opinion service. Eight po int-to-point conferences were conducted to discuss real clinical cases by u se of interactive sharing of medical images. The average duration of each s ession was 35 min. Encouraging results were obtained.