Realtime fetal ultrasound by telemedicine in Queensland. A successful venture?

We have established a realtime fetal tele-ultrasound consultation service i n Queensland, which has been integrated into our routine clinical practice, The service, which uses ISDN transmission at 384 kbit/s, allows patients i n Townsville to be examined by subspecialists in Brisbane, 1500 km away. Fo r the 90 tele-ultrasound consultations performed for the first 71 patients, 90% of the babies have been delivered, and outcome data have been received on all the pregnancies. All significant anomalies and diagnoses have been confirmed. The referring clinicians would have physically referred 24 of th e 71 patients to Brisbane in the absence of telemedicine. A crude cost-bene fit calculation suggests that the tele-ultrasound service resulted in a net saving of A$6340, and at the same time enabled almost four times the numbe r of consultations to be carried out.