AIDMAN-Telecardiology over a high-speed satellite network

Describes AIDMAN, a pilot project in which health clinics in remote areas of Greece are connected with mainland hospitals in Athens and London, to provide routine cardiological service, through a high-speed satellite network. Advances in computing now make high quality noninvasive cardiological investigation tools, Holter ECG and blood pressure, exercise testing and echocardiography, cheap and easy to deploy in health clinics and to be managed by primary care teams. The AIDMAN project exploits this technology to permit all preliminary investigation to be carried out in the remote clinic with the reports being forwarded over the link to the cardiologist for review. Consultation with the cardiologist is also conducted over the link using video conferencing. Onward referral to specialist care, in the authors' case, London, is performed over the same satellite network. Only when invasive procedures are carried out does the patient need to travel. The system, which has been operating in pilot form in the UK for over 12 months, has numerous advantages: the patient receives immediate investigation, intervention and treatment is prompt; unnecessary travel is avoided However, in its current form, it does not provide direct economic advantage to the health service, the saving is to the patient in travel and time (in Greece Holter monitoring is performed as a hospital in-patient procedure). The authors have also observed significant advantage in the video consultation, involving cardiologist, patient and the patient's doctor, the doctor can act as an advocate, making the consultation more effective. It also affords an effective education process for the inexperienced doctor.