Telemedicine network for cooperative medical decision making in Balkan Countries

摘要

The project, developed by Heart Hospital in Massa, supported by Cuore un Mondo Association and Tuscany Region, was aimed at medical cooperation with Balkan Countries in diagnosis and care of congenital heart diseases. First step was to set up a telemedicine network for multi-center cooperative medical decision making. While echography studies allow to recognize abnormalities in newborns or in fetus, operators are not skilled in many hospitals. Frequently it is necessary to transfer urgently to specialized cardiac units newborns suffering by critical disorders while early care planning, before delivery, would limit risks and costs. Tele-echocardiography was implemented connecting Balkan clinical centres with Heart Hospital in Massa. Initially commercial videoconference equipment was applied but recently a low-cost Open-Source device has been designed, allowing both on-line streaming of video signals for real-time interaction and off-line transmission of diagnostic images (DICOM and not) in addition to conference functions and image storage and management. This device is also challenging for use in remote Countries not able to acquire expensive medical technology.