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Distant doctors make their rounds via satellite

22 May 2003

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Medical assistant takes instruction from remote doctor

TelAny can transfer data from the place where a medical emergency occurs to a remotely connected physician for immediate assistance via a wireless network.

Credits: Kell S.r.l.

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The satellite telemedicine van is an application developed through the innovative telemedicine network and used by the Italian Field Hospital involved in the peacekeeping mission in Sarajevo in 1996 and 1997. This enabled the mission to support the health care structure of the University Clinical Centre of Sarajevo and the IDI hospital in Tirana.

The telemedicine satellite network combines videoconferencing with real-time data exchange between multimedia computers and medical peripherals of medical images such as X-rays, scans, pictures of pathology samples, etc. The links between the hospitals are supported by up to four digital carriers of 384 kb using capacity leased by ESA on the Eutelsat II-F4 satellite.

This project was the result of cooperation between ESA, which provided the communication infrastructure; the Italian space agency ASI, which funded the pilot projects through ESA's ARTES programme; the Italian Ministry of Defence, which had the operational responsibility for the system; and TelBios, a consortium between the San Raffaele Hospital in Milan and Alenia Aerospazio, Rome, which proposed and coordinated the project.

Credits: ESA

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Doctors can monitor patients remotely with TelAny

In a project called TelAny (Telemedicine Anywhere) funded by ESA, trials showed how satellite telecommunications can allow doctors to monitor and treat emergency cases or long term patients remotely.

Credits: Kell S.r.l.

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Data from the implanted pacemaker is downloaded to the patient's computer using an electronic reader. Physicians were able to retrieve data from the PC at the patient’s home in less than 30 seconds via a satellite Internet connection.

Credits: Kell S.r.l.

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