Fetal telemedicine: interactive transfer of real-time ultrasound and video via ISDN for remote consultation

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Abstract
Current referral practice for ultrasonically detected fetal abnormalities contributes to parental anxiety, patient inconvenience, diagnostic inaccuracy, and service inefficiency. To determine whether telemedicine would reduce these disadvantages, we established an ISDN 30 link between a district general hospital on an island and a subspecialty referral center approximately 120 km away on mainland Britain. Live ultrasound images of the fetus were transmitted in real time from a commercial scanner in the hospital using a total data transfer rate of 2 Mbit/s. After decompression at the receiving end, there was almost no perceptible loss of picture quality or frame rate. This report describes the technical aspects of the link and discusses the implications for referral practice in fetal medicine.

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