Telemedicine
Telemedicine is the utilisation of telecommunication technologies to provide
medical services. This can range from a doctor using a telephone or fax to
discuss a patient with a colleague, to the use of video-conferencing equipment
to speak to a patient many thousands of kilometres away, to the use of a small
electronic device to continually monitor the heart condition of a patient.
The vast distances in Australia, the high incidences of ear diseases in rural
and remote areas, and the difficulties in providing specialist medical services
to people in these areas demands some new solutions to overcome these problems.
Ear Science Institute Australia's Tele-Otology Programme
Ear Science Institute Australia is developing a tele-otology programme that
will provide specialist advice to hearing impaired patients who have difficulty
accessing local specialists.
 Ear specialists use an otoscope to view the inside of the ear - the ear canal
and ear drum - to make an assessment and diagnosis. Through the tele-otology
programme, primary care providers, such as GPs, nurses, and aboriginal health
care workers, can use a video-otoscope to collect digital images of the eardrum.
These images, together with a clinical history of the patient, and audiology
(an assessment of the hearing) and tympanometry (measuring the mobility of the
ear drum) test results, can be stored on computer and transmitted to a regional
centre or city for assessment by an ear specialist. The specialist will be able
to view the images and data and transmit advice back to the primary care provider
once an assessment has been made.
Ear Science Institute Australia's Tele-otology Group has:
Developed protocols for tele-otology assessment
Written user-friendly software to record and transmit images and data
Developed computer server software to send images and data to the ear specialist,
and to transmit assessments back to the primary care provider
Identified and tested safe and high quality equipment (video-otoscopes, digitising
equipment, computers, audiology and tympanometry equipment
Developed and conducted a training course for primary care providers in
video-otoscopy and tele-otology
Basic Research
Formulation of telemedicine protocols
The validation of remote assessment of ear disease using images and other clinical
data
Determination of compression limits for still images and image sequences
Image processing for automatic detection of ear pathology and disorders
Applied Research
Existing computing, imaging and telecommunications technologies must be adapted
to work with each other
Development of new devices for telemedicine and tele-otology
Video-Otoscope Training
Ear Science Institute Australia has developed a course to teach rural and remote
area health workers the background and skills for video-otoscopy and telemedicine.
The first course was conducted in 2002 with 30 students from the Marr Mooditj Foundation,
the largest education institute in Australia for Aboriginal health workers, and
further training undertaken throughout 2003. The course is adaptable for training medical
students and for overseas use.
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