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Telemedicine has been used in the Solomon Islands since 2000. We used quantitative and qualitative methods to examine telemedicine use in the Solomon Islands from January 2006 to June 2009. During the study period 66 telemedicine cases were submitted to the store and forward telemedicine system being used there. These included orthopaedic, oncology, cardiothoracic, infectious, congenital, gastroenterology and dermatology cases. Most cases (52%) were submitted by doctors at the National Referral Hospital (NRH) in Honiara. The majority of responses came from the NRH (27%). A final, firm recommendation regarding patient diagnosis and/or care was given for 46% of the cases. Interviews were conducted with 23 stakeholders in the Solomon Islands and in Australia to better understand the current and future use of telemedicine. The interviews identified the fragility of the Solomon Islands infrastructure, including the lack of training, as the largest barrier to the future use of telemedicine. The best use of telemedicine appears to be case sharing within the Solomon Islands, with connections to clinicians in other countries as a secondary benefit when particular expertise is required. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We have developed a Web-based application for managing e-consultations. This solves some of the problems inherent in peer-to-peer email communication. Referrals were from three hospitals in Vietnam. Each hospital was provided with Internet access for up to 4 hours a day for an initial 12-month period. In the first six months, six doctors from the Vietnamese hospitals submitted a total of 30 cases. Specialists in Sydney provided their expertise on a voluntary basis. Preliminary data suggest that the Vietnamese doctors found the system benefited their diagnostic and management decision making. Challenges have included equipment failures, language barriers and the difficulty of obtaining feedback. Successes have included the relationship building between doctors in the two countries. Preliminary results were encouraging and most of the Vietnamese doctors (five of the six) reported that they were slowly incorporating use of the system into their daily practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]