Telemedicine activity at a Canadian university medical school and its teaching hospitals

Dalhousie University Medical School and its teaching hospitals have been pr oviding clinical telemedicine services since 1987. The object of the presen t study was to assess the extent and growth of telemedicine at the medical school and teaching hospitals, as well as to evaluate the obstacles to its deployment. This was achieved by conducting structured personal interviews with telemedicine providers. Twenty telemedicine programmes were identified , of which 15 were operational and five were being planned. The number of e stablished telemedicine projects had doubled in the six months preceding th e study. A wide variety of telemedicine services were provided, ranging fro m clinical consultations in a number of medical specialties to patient educ ation, grand rounds and continuing medical education. These services were p rovided to sites in a wide area in the Maritime region and internationally. The three most important obstacles to the implementation of telemedicine w ere a lack of knowledge about telemedicine (80% of respondents), time const raints (75%) and funding (70%).