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European Space Agency

Press Release

Distant doctors make their rounds via satellite

22 May 2003
 
ESA telemedicine technology enables specialist physicians to perform
detailed patient consultations from hundreds of kilometres away.
 
High-resolution video images and data signals sent via satellite
links have already made 'teleconsulting' a routine procedure in one
part of Europe. The Agency's involvement with satellite telemedicine
began back in 1996, when ESA provided a satellite communication
system to link Italian hospitals with a field hospital in Sarajevo in
Bosnia, enabling teleconsultations for both civilian and military
patients - either live videoconferencing or else 'offline'
transmission of multimedia patient data for later diagnosis. 

"Accessing the experience of medical specialists located hundreds of
miles apart helped to reduce the feeling of professional isolation
perceived by medical doctors in the field hospital, in particular
when facing problems that were new to them" said Francesco Feliciani
of ESA Telecom.

"More than six years later an expanded Euromednet network is still
operated on a weekly basis, now mainly assisting teleconsultations in
Tirana in Albania and Pec in Kosovo, and the Celio Military Hospital
in Italy, and will soon return to Sarajevo as well as Bucharest in
Romania."

Since 1996 the Agency has backed more than 20 telemedicine projects
and on 23 and 24 May ESA hosts a symposium in Frascati, Italy called
'Telemedicine via Satellite in the Information Society'. Workshops
will focus on subjects including telemedicine serving hospitals in
remote areas and other teleconsulting applications.

One past ESA project, Remote Communities Services Telecentre (RCST),
brought teleconsulting to remote parts of Canada. The experience has
led to the implementation of the permanent SmartLabrador Project, a
hybrid satellite-terrestrial network providing broadband network
services to 26 communities in rural Labrador. Today a variety of
teleconsulting services are provided through the network, including
autism clinics and telepsychiatry. 

Isolated mobile sites like aircraft and ferries can also benefit from
teleconsulting. As larger planes and boats come to carry more
passengers, so the chance of a serious medical emergency occurring on
any single trip increases. A project called Marine Interactive
Satellite Technologies (MIST) fitted a 'wireless sickbay' to a
Canadian superferry. During 2002 some 23 teleconsultations were
carried out between the ferry and Port aux Basques hospital,
Newfoundland, including four live emergency consultations.

Another ESA telemedicine project called TelAny (Telemedicine
Anywhere) was demonstrated last year, linking Norwegian ferries to an
onshore hospital. Another element of TelAny involved allowing Italian
cardiologists to remotely monitor the health of five heart patients
fitted with pacemakers. 
 
Data from implanted sensors was recorded with a reader then
downloaded to a PC with a satellite modem, becoming available to the
doctor within 30 seconds. Each patient was free to carry on their
normal life, only having to visit the hospital if their doctor
requested it.

With the proportion of elderly people in Europe due to increase, such
remote monitoring of chronic patients might well become a significant
element of health care provision across greying suburbs of Europe.
Another workshop at the ESA Symposium is centring on telemedicine and
the elderly.

"Despite the great potential, telemedicine in general and via
satellite in particular is still at a very early phase," said
Feliciani. "Due to many aspects involved and the many issues to be
sorted out, a multi-disciplinary approach where several actors in the
field are able to work together is a necessary condition to move
forward. This month's symposium is an attempt to facilitate this
process."

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