Tele-consulting for collaborative diagnosis and care of heart malformations

Medical cooperation with clinical centers of Balkan Countries was developed by the “G. Pasquinucci” Heart Hospital of “G. Monasterio” Foundation in Massa, with the support of the “Heart World” Association and the Tuscany Region, in diagnosis and care of congenital heart malformations. Given the geographical scenery it was important to set up a tele-consulting network over the Internet for multi-center collaborative medical-decision making. Tele-echocardiography was implemented in pediatric or gynecology centers of Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Albania, using videoconference equipment for transmitting on-line over the Internet diagnostic images. Limitations of commercial solutions suggested exploitation of Open-Source technology to set up low-cost devices implementing both live and store-and-forward tele-consulting as well as videoconference and image storage/management.