Telemedicine of the Heart-Real-Time Telescreening of Echocardiography Using Satellite Telecommunication

Abstract

The early detection of disease is important to keep people healthy, but it is not easy for elderly residents living in rural areas at a distance from well-equipped medical institutes to be examined. Therefore, the present study evaluated the usefulness of real-time telescreening of echocardiography using satellite communications. The participants in this study were 57 residents of a rural community in Japan. The resolution of the real-time ultrasound images sent by communications satellite was almost identical to that of the original images taken in the hospital. Although some problems remain to be solved, telescreening of echocardiography will be a practical method for public health in the near future.