AIDMAN - a versatile telemedicine platform

Telemedicine has long promised to be introduced on a wide scale, yet despite dramatic falls in the cost of hardware and increasing power and capability of equipment, there has been little impact on routine medical service. Many projects have been reported in the literature in a wide variety of medical disciplines, but generally these have been pilot and have almost always ceased once funding has ended. The question remains, "What obstacles remain to be overcome?" The AIDMAN project, based in Chorleywood, UK, has established teleclinics in many clinical specialities within a single primary care setting so that it becomes routine. To date, tele-clinics in dermatology, cardiology and peripheral vascular surgery (wound care) run routinely. On the clinical side, experience has shown that patients are very satisfied with the video consultation and outcome is at least as good as existing procedures. However the goal is to develop a full range of tele-clinics so that system cost is reduced through re-use of the equipment.