Neurological teleconsultation for general practitioners.

Abstract

A neurology teleconsulting network was implemented between a university hospital in Lisbon and five nearby health centres. PCs equipped for videoconferencing were installed, connected by ISDN lines at 128 kbit/s. Fifty-three general practitioners (GPs) were surveyed. The survey showed that the GPs had difficulties in using computers, but they had definite intentions to use teleconsultation for neurology cases and 83% of the respondents stated that they would probably use the technique. During the study, 90 neurology teleconsultations took place over 55 weeks. The average consultation rate was 1.6 teleconsultations per week (SD 1.3, range 0-6). The conferences lasted 10-45 min. Longer teleconsultations were mainly due to technical difficulties in using computers on the part of users with a low level of computer literacy. The patients were 42 males and 46 females, with a mean age of 38 years (SD 20, range 1-84); two patients were discussed twice. The benefits consisted mainly of advice on patient medication, diagnosis and the prevention of unnecessary specialist consultations or laboratory examinations. Doctor-doctor teleconsultation allows the rapid resolution of queries which otherwise cause stress to patients and increase the cost and complexity of care.