For the patient, interacting with a physician who is on television may seem odd and uncomfortable. For the care provider, the same professional bedside manner patients have come to expect has to be transferred by camera presence. Consultations with Kwajalein have given doctors and patients alike a chance to warm up to technology. Tripler's telemedicine project is on the brink of expanding into new sites, based on the success of the Kwajalein program. When someone out there in the Pacific Basin needs specialty health care, they've got to come to Tripler - whether they are soldiers, sailors, airmen or Marines.
Soldiers can attest that the best health care is often near garrison units.
The big hospitals with all the specialists will always be in the rear, and it might seem that being deployed or even going to the field means losing access. That's a problem commanders have to face. If a soldier needs to see a specialist, the commander automatically loses him for an undetermined amount of time. Tripler's telemedicine clinic, located next to the emergency room, will serve as a communications hub while the program expands. Just outside the telemedicine clinic, an isoshelter has been set up to improve the immediate access link between telemedicine and teleradiology.