Ideally, physicians could view images remotely and then make a decision on going to the hospital. Doctors could also determine if a specialist should be called in. This effort combines VPNs and cable modems in a way that solves some basic problems that have plagued telemedicine applications in the past. Some of the files that need to be transmitted are often larger than 1 gigabyte. And ATM was considered too costly for wide-scale applications.
Cable systems offer an interesting compromise.
They deliver high bandwidth at relatively low costs. This is well below the monthly costs for ISDN and ATM services, plus cable delivers a maximum bandwidth in the T1 data rate range. The problem with cable systems is security, an issue that is especially important to hospitals. The way most cable systems are designed, all users in a community essentially operate in a shared-LAN environment. This is unacceptable when it comes to handling patient records.