A network of regional healthcare facilities in South Australia, constituting hospitals and community health centres, required a solution that would enable staff based remotely to meet without the need for travel. Staff were finding the tyranny of distance between locations was becoming increasingly tiresome, time-consuming and unproductive.

Solution
Vantage established an ISDN multipoint video conferencing solution to provide a clinical, educational and administrative link between the various facilities located across the state. The technology not only facilitates face-to-face contact, but also enables medical images (such as x-rays and photographs), sound and video files, patient records and other medical data to be viewed and shared in real time between locations. Specialist telemedicine equipment such as cameras and stethoscopes can be connected to the video conferencing equipment to assist in diagnosis and patient treatment.

Benefits
Through the use of video conferencing technology, the quality of healthcare services has been significantly been improved. Patient’s visiting community health centres now have access to a higher level of medical expertise with the ability to meet with city-based specialists. Healthcare professionals have found the technology highly productive in saving time and money travelling between locations. They use it extensively for patient consultancy and case management, as well as for training and administrative purposes.