Development of teleconsultations systems for e-health.

Two prototype telemedicine systems have been developed: 1) a wireless system for status assessment of cardiology patients (WSCP), 2) a system for medical image management and teleconsultations (IMTS). The former system enables the patient to record an ECG on a personal digital assistant (PDA), view it and send it via a wireless connection. The doctor on duty is then able to view the received ECG and make appropriate decisions, also to apply for consultation by sending the received ECG to the PDA of a cardiology expert. The system logs all performed operations. The hardware used in the system consists of personal computers (PCs), PDAs, analog-digital converters, ECG sensors and GPRS modems. Software consists of programs for patients, doctors on duty, cardiology experts and administration, along with a central database. The second system is intended to be used by professional doctors for management of collected images and for teleconsultations via videoconferencing in order to obtain a second opinion. The system provides an integrated environment eliminating the need to jump between many applications. By using the system, doctors are able to acquire images from analog and digital cameras, process and enhance them, as well as upload them to local or remote databases. Doctors are also able to design custom database forms. The teleconsultation part of the system supports video and audio over ISDN and TCP-IP, using both a hardware codec (Zydacron Z360) and a software codec (based on MS Netmeeting). Images are sent from one client to another using the standard protocol T.120. Images become synchronized immediately upon reception by another client.