Development of a combined telemedicine and Picture Archiving and Communications System for a tertiary hospital group

Abstract

The new Mater Mother's Hospital in Brisbane, due to open in March 2008, will cater for the growing demand on maternity services in Queensland. The plan is to provide a comprehensive teleconsultation service to the whole of Queensland and to northern New South Wales for both teleradiology and telecardiology. The key to the Mater's plans for electronic health records will be the coming together of a Picture Archiving and Communications System (PACS), various clinical information systems, a new Patient Administration System (PAS) and the clinical portal system called Verdi. Clinicians will have online access to patient demographics from the PAS and to patients’ previous imaging studies from the PACS, prior to the real-time teleconsultation, so as to enhance the clinical value of the consultation. Developments in the areas of telemedicine and PACS appear capable of supporting each other to ensure that real-time teleconsultations by paediatric specialists can be provided to patients in remote areas, and at the same time the consultants can have access to a patient's images and medical records so as to provide a high standard of care.