Use of biomedical equipment in telemedicine applications

USE OF BIOMEDICAL EQUIPMENT IN TELEMEDICINE APPLICATIONS

 

Author 1: sjaaeng ellefsen elisabeth, technical consultant and advisor, NST

 

Norwegian Centre for Telemedicine (NST) use biomedical equipment in telemedicine applications. As an example on how to integrate and use biomedical equipment in telemedicine applications the solution for two different projects will be presented: • Telemedicine Anywhere - TelAny, initiated by NST and financed by European space Agency (ESA).

• Ultrasound and Cardiotocogram in a Telemedicine service, initiated by NST and financed by NST and the research council of Norway. These two projects are selected out of several because they have a larger complexity than other projects at NST where biomedical equipment is being used. Focus will be on technical integration off biomedical equipment towards communication network. Satellite communication and broadband network communication are used on these -long distance -transmissions. "Telany" demonstrated advanced mobile telemedicine applications using satellite communications. Biomedical equipment used in this project where 12 lead ECG transmitter, portable multimonitoring and electronic stethoscope. Technical equipment such as portable videoconference unit and digital camera where used to support the biomedical equipment system. A challenge in doing this was to get the manufactures to open their protocols so that we could integrate biomedical equipment towards telemedicine application.

"Ultrasound and cardiotocogram" was a pilot installation between a small local hospital (Leknes, Norway) and a central hospital (Bodø, Norway) for obstetric aid services. By using broadband network it was possible transfer online ultrasound examinations from local hospital to the specialist at the central hospital. This was done by connecting the Ultrasound System to video conference unit. CTG-traces where transferred using a CTG server and client together with antepartum monitor. Normally CTG equipment is used locally but in this solution part of the monitoring is done far away at the central hospital. A challenge in doing this was to confirm safety within data network. A general overview of these two projects, how the components are integrated and how each instruments works within the telemedicine application will be described.