Telemedicine in neonatal emergencies

UNLABELLED: Telemedicine is the transmission of medical notices and images among remote sites, that uses adequate audio-video systems. OBJECTIVE: To increase the quality and the amount of medical informations, avoiding unnecessary carriages. Among main fields of interest in Telemedicine, monitoring of cardiovascular parameters and medical emergency represent situations that need to be promptly and appropriately approached. In such a similar conditions, a preliminary transmission to III level Health Institutions of informations as Electrocardiograms or even Echocardiograms may play an essential role in the diagnosis, prognosis and treatment of emergent cardiovascular disease. METHODS: Since March 1998, an Audio-Video PC-based system that uses integrated services digital network (ISDN) at a bandwith of 384 Kbps, was installed at Pediatric Cardiac Surgery Department of Giovanni XXIII Hospital, Bari, Italy. On July 1999, thanks to Research Funds of the Health Ministry of Italy, similar audio-video systems that use ISDN were installed in the main pediatric institutions of provinces of Puglia and linked in a wide area network. RESULTS: We report the experience of Telemedicine of a Department of Pediatric Cardiology and Cardiac Surgery, and we try to analyze its impact on improvement of quality of care, once employed in provincial field.