At Oregon Health Sciences University, Dr. David Sahn leads a team of pediatric cardiologists who are conducting real-time telemedicine consults. Dr. Sahn and his team use Picturetel systems running at 384 kbps to guide medical technicians and physicians while they are doing the echo. In contrast, to view a radiology image of a liver or a kidney, a still image is fine. Pediatric cardiology requires that the medical technician perform the echo to more specific specifications than adult cardiology requires. Therefore, pediatric cardiologists prefer to instruct the technician as the procedure is performed.
Tight protocols have to be established.
He also says that the ability to annotate and sift through these stored images will become important. The first choice would still be real-time. This is partly because the standards open a customer's doors to products from other vendors and allow users to mix and match. This in turn threatens to cannibalize profits. David Balch, Director of Telemedicine for East Carolina University's School of Medicine, confirms the killer applications.