The success of telemedicine will depend on when and how those problems are addressed. The biggest problem is setting up a way to transmit such information. Our problem right now is we don't have the infrastructure in some places. In others, we have the infrastructure, but it is not affordable. The kind of on-ramp needed depends on how much information must be transmitted.
Satellites serve as backup when the demand for data transmission is high.
Grants through the federal Rural Health Care Corp. are designed to reduce the costs of rural access to no more than the costs for urban areas, said Puskin. But she said it is also important to match the technology to the need. In the beginning, she said, some of the telemedicine technology was so complicated that doctors and nurses balked at using it. That is why you do demonstrations and development projects. That way you get stuff out there so that people can say that this is a help.