Remote interpretation of pediatric echocardiograms via telemedicine helped speed diagnosis and treatment of potentially serious heart conditions in hundreds of young patients, according to a study presented at the recent American Academy of Pediatrics National Conference and Exhibition in San Francisco.
According to Health Data Management, Researchers at Children’s Mercy Hospital and Clinics in Kansas City, Mo., reviewed 1,285 pediatric echocardiograms generated in an 11-year period at St. John’s Medical Center, 160 miles away in Joplin, Mo. Of the 990 echos that were first-time studies of a particular patient, the interpreting cardiologist at Children’s Mercy found 99 percent to be complete and accurate.
While close to 74 percent of the echos were normal, some pediatric patients were flagged for follow-up treatment. Just 15 children had to be transferred to Kansas City, and 13 of those patients had “major abnormalities” identified in the remote readings.
“Satellite heart imaging labs like the one evaluated in this study can give parents fast access to pediatric expertise they might not otherwise have, and that can often be reassuring,” study co-author Dr. Seiji Ito, a resident at Children’s Mercy, says in a press release. “This study helps illustrate how telemedicine can save families significant worry, time and expense. It alleviates the need to make appointments with an unfamiliar doctor in a city far away, and endure a lengthy road trip that ultimately could prove to be unnecessary.”
Over the length of the study, which ran from April 1998 to October 2009, telemedicine technology evolved from videotaped, store-and-forward consultations over slow ISDN lines to digital video transmitted at high speed over the Internet.
That improvement is similar to what the Arizona Telemedicine Network has achieved over many years. The network, which has roots in the early 1970s, when three University of Arizona radiologists created digital radiography, has been a lifeline for remote communities across the vast state. It now handles more than 100,000 radiology cases per year, or 90 percent of all telemedicine services delivered over the network, according to Inside Tucson Business.
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