Technology solutions

The CRE in Telehealth concluded in September 2019. Description of work below is not current.

A variety of technological solutions are used depending on the nature of the health intervention. Each setting and clinical interaction may require a different solution. As technology advances, new equipment, software and infrastructure will create further opportunities for new service configurations and clinical services.

Our work

WebRTC

WebRTC a project that enables web browsers to provide real time communications (RTC) including video conferencing. The CRE is currently developing WebRTC applications tailored to telehealth.

Tablet computers

There is increasing interest in using tablet computer for telehealth particularly for home-based video conferencing and remote image viewing. The CRE in undertaking a number investigation into the use of tablet computers. These studies include: technical solutions to address connectivity issues in mobile consultations; calibration of display to ensure consistent display of images; and the effect of time in use on display characteristics.

DICOM

Digital Image Communication in Medicine (DICOM) is an international ICT protocol that defines a file format for medical images as well as a transmission protocol to transfer the DICOM file from one device to another over data network. DICOM has been almost universally adopted by radiology. The CRE is collaboratively working to create DICOM standard for dermatological imaging which will help facilitate teledermatology.

Networking

The speed and quality of the Internet is variable and is affected by type of broadband technology (NBN, DSL, 4G), geographic location (distance from telephone exchange or mobile broadband antennae) and congestion on the connection. To undertake video consultation over the Internet a certain threshold must be met. The CRE is developing testing tools that will assess the speed and quality of the Internet at the site of a proposed service. This testing can be done pre-implementation and will help establish technical feasibility of providing a service to a particular location.