Using telemedicine, physicians and other health care workers at one location can observe and interact with patients at a distant location using video conferencing. For example, for some types of cases, an oncologist can examine the patient, study laboratory and radiology data, render a diagnosis, and participate in management.
Patients remain in their hometown while the physician supervises their care from another city.
In a telepathology project, we designed and tested a motorized, robotically controlled, light microscopy telepathology system. Surgical pathology case diagnoses were rendered by a university pathology group practice in another city. Deployment of the system has resulted in increased diagnostic accuracy and has significantly reduced turnaround times for rendering pathology diagnoses on cancer cases. Similar telepathology systems are now being deployed elsewhere in the United States and in Europe. In another study, we quantitated accuracy of teledermatology diagnoses, using digital cameras for image capture.