Store and Forward Applications in Telemedicine for Wireless IP Based Networks

Abstract

Telemedicine is the use of telecommunications technology to provide medical information and services. It may be as simple as two health professionals discussing a case over the telephone, or as sophisticated as using satellite technology to broadcast a consultation between providers at facilities in two countries, using videoconferencing equipment. The first is used daily by most health professionals, and the latter is used by the military and some large medical centers. In the past, several telemedicine applications using wired communications were presented. The recent evolutions of wireless communications have enabled telemedicine systems to operate throughout the world, hence expanding telemedicine benefits, applications, and services. In telemedicine, typically scenarios is two doctors are involved with the patient: a local attending doctor and a remote tele-doctor who is engaged to do one or more of a variety of services ranging from tele-consultation, or performing a tele-surgery, as well as tele-diagnosis where a doctor tele-diagnoses a sickness. The telemedicine systems need to be very simple to operate, reliable and consistent links, use standard communication protocols, and efficient bandwidth. The current generation of the telemedicine systems uses the store-and-forward approach of telemedicine, where medical data are acquired and compiled and transmitted. A high quality video and audio is required at both the sides to enable the consulting doctor and patients to have face-to-face encounter with the expert doctor. In this paper we discuss a prototype wireless Internet Protocol (IP) based store and forward telemedicine system using the Very Small Aperture Terminal (VSAT) satellite communication and Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN).