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To provide a baseline for future planning we conducted a survey of the use of telemedicine in the state of Western Australia. A questionnaire was designed, validated and posted to all public and private health-care facilities in Western Australia (metropolitan hospitals, country hospitals and nursing posts). Of the 132 questionnaires sent out, 102 were returned (77% response rate). Seven of the responding hospitals (all public) were classified as mainly providers of telehealth services and 95 (both public and private) were mainly receivers. Of these 95 receivers of services, 58 facilities (61%) reported that they had access to videoconferencing for telehealth purposes. The most common purposes for which videoconferencing was used were reported to be education (76% of those using videoconferencing), wound care (55%) and psychiatry (53%). The most common store-and-forward application was tele-ECG, which was reported by more than half (54%) of respondents. Eighty-five percent of public health-care facilities reported the use of telehealth (either videoconferencing or store-and-forward) in comparison with 24% of those in the private sector. There was a tendency for facilities further away from Perth to be users of more telehealth services: the correlation between distance and the number of telehealth services received was significant (Spearman's rho = 0.54, P < 0.001). The survey showed that about 73% of responding healthcare facilities in Western Australia were using telemedicine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We calculated the cost of an established tele-ophthalmology service, from a health-provider's perspective, and compared this with the cost of three other existing eye-care service delivery options. During a 12-month study period, 118 persons took part in the tele-ophthalmology consultations between a rural clinic located approximately 900 km from the Lions Eye Institute in Perth. The variable costs of tele-ophthalmology were $166.89 (Australian dollars) per patient, and the alternatives cost $445.96, $271.48 and $665.44 per patient. Tele-ophthalmology incurred a set-up cost of $13,340. The threshold at which tele-ophthalmology became cheaper than any of the alternative options occurred at a workload of 128 patients. Tele-ophthalmology offers a viable alternative to conventional eye-care service in rural and remote areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a study that determines what applications of telemedicine have been the subject of several peer-reviewed publications and the needs for conductiong systematic reviews in the future. The researchers review the systematic reviews in telemedicine which were published up to the end of 2009. Result reveals 16 systematic reviews focused on general aspects of telemedicine such as outcomes, feasibility, economics and satisfaction.

The article discusses the gap analysis in telemedicine. It says that gap analysis in telehealth project may refer to the difference between a current and a desired state. It further states that gap analysis in telemedicine may help establish a new health system and to implement the telemedicine systems.