ONLINE HEALTH CARE SYSTEM TO PROVIDE SPECIALIST CARE TO RURAL, REMOTE AND UNDESERVED REGIONS
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$360,475.00
Summary
Our aim is to develop and validate an online health care system to link remote and rural health professionals, facilities and patients into an online community. The proposed online system will provide medical advice and diagnosis, consumer health care information services, support groups, information and distance education for those working in the health care as well as the community and assistance in the operational and medical decision-making process. Less expensive health care personnel shoul ....Our aim is to develop and validate an online health care system to link remote and rural health professionals, facilities and patients into an online community. The proposed online system will provide medical advice and diagnosis, consumer health care information services, support groups, information and distance education for those working in the health care as well as the community and assistance in the operational and medical decision-making process. Less expensive health care personnel should be able to use the system with little training in remote and rural areas. This project will generate knowledge about the practicality of low cost but highly effective e-health system. It will be easier to disseminate health care information and health evaluation processes to patients, doctors, nurses and other health care workers. It will also be possible to obtain information about image resolution, suitable compression algorithms and compression levels for different diseases pathologies.Read moreRead less
Development And Evaluation Of Teleophthalmic Systems For Screening Of Common Blinding Eye Diseases
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$263,918.00
Summary
Portable ophthalmic instruments will provide digital images for storage and telemetric transmission to a disease control centre. We will be assessing and developing new portable ophthalmic imaging instruments, and validating them for common blinding eye conditions. The aim is to assess the ability of various health personal to document glaucoma, diabetic retinopathy, active trachoma, corneal scarring and cataract in rural screenings using digital imaging technology. A network of ophthalmologists ....Portable ophthalmic instruments will provide digital images for storage and telemetric transmission to a disease control centre. We will be assessing and developing new portable ophthalmic imaging instruments, and validating them for common blinding eye conditions. The aim is to assess the ability of various health personal to document glaucoma, diabetic retinopathy, active trachoma, corneal scarring and cataract in rural screenings using digital imaging technology. A network of ophthalmologists, health department personnel and aboriginal health workers in Western Australia will be involved. The project will also examine the quality of images obtained by health workers with various levels of skills and compare this with conventional photographs currently obtained by the screening network. Finally, the project will demonstrate practicality of the large scale storage of digital images of patient eyes. Preliminary evaluations have been performed on our teleophthalmology system using different portable instruments namely a handheld fundus camera, slit-lamp and indirect ophthalmoscope. We have also tested our teleophthalmology system at the Dr. Soetomo Hospital (Airlangga University) in Surabaya, Indonesia. Images captured using the handheld fundus camera were successfully transmitted to Lions Eye Institute through satellite, mobile and Internet lines. This pilot project has been sponsored by the Western Australian Department of Trade and Commerce and Telstra.Read moreRead less