[Telemedicine with emphasis on telepathology--its beginnings and future prospects in Bosnia-Herzegovina].

Telemedicine is a rather new activity which covers various approaches in order to fulfill the main task which can be expressed in a more comprehensive way such as "remote medicine" or "medicine on distance". The first telemedical relation has been established with Zagreb, Croatia in November 1996 by means of PHAROS. One month later the Institute of Pathology together with the Radiology and Ophthalmology Clinic of University Hospital of Sarajevo joined the experimental project "SHARED" (a telemedicine initiative to support remote health care structure, proposed by the San Raffaele International, Biomedical Science Park with Stato Maggiore della diffesa and European Space Agency). During the first phase, which started in July 1996, we had 40 consultations that showed us the first results and advantages of using this system. After that we had 31 consultations more. Due to problems in the infrastructure and lack of experts, small country like Bosnia and Herzegovina (B&H) sees telemedicine as a future in its health care organising.