Telemedicine, The Way Of The Future?
General Practioner leader Rob Walters says he has been able to diagnose the skin ailments of far-flung relatives with the help of images sent by Skype or mobile phone - which he says highlights the potential of telemedicine.
But Dr Walters, the former chairman of the Australian Divisions of General Practice, and the e-health advocate Dr Mukesh Haikerwal, says Labor’s plan to support online consultations and video-conferencing covered by Medicare within two years is ambitious, given the technical and privacy snags which have impeded e-health in Australia. The $392 million announcement, the centrepiece of Labor’s campaign launch yesterday, brings to more than $800 million the amount Labor is pledging to spend over four years on new health technology and personal electronic health records.
”It is disturbing to me, it is unacceptable to me, it is offensive to me that if you live in rural or regional Australia you are three times more likely to die within five years if you are diagnosed with cancer than other Australians,” the Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, told the Labor campaign launch yesterday.
”It is also true that for people on the outskirts of our major metropolitan cities it can be a long way in from the edge of town if you are feeling sick and you’ve just had an operation.
”Under this scheme you will be able to go to your local general practitioner and consult, face to face, through the power of the internet, and then ever more quickly through the national broadband network.”
The plan to link patients in isolated and outer-metropolitan areas with doctors via broadband so they can avoid a long journey to visit a specialist will begin in July.
Medicare rebates will be paid to GPs and specialists for online consultations, conducted via video link, usually from the GP’s office, at a cost of $250 million.
The Health Minister, Nicola Roxon, said the rebates would be set at a generous level to encourage doctors to use the system.
It is understood the government is considering paying GPs a rebate of up to $100 for an online consultation, and specialists up to $180. GPs now receive a Medicare rebate of $34 for a 20-minute consultation.
Ms Gillard also pledged $50 million to set up after hours help lines where families can have a video-conference with a GP from their homes.
This policy, to start from the middle of 2012, is designed to link in with the national broadband network.
Ms Roxon said the protocols for the types of advice doctors would be able to provide online were yet to be determined, and families would need a computer camera set up at home.
”We are not for one minute suggesting this replaces the need to see doctors and specialists,” she said. ”It is a further way of getting information and contact.”
But Dr Walters said the routine use of telemedicine by health professionals would be easier said than done, as had been demonstrated in Tasmania where, despite providing telemedicine facilities for doctors, the new technology failed to win widespread support.