Telehealth: Experience of the first 120 consultations delivered from a new refugee telehealth clinic

Abstract

Background: In 2011, the Australian Government introduced Medicare item numbers for telehealth consultations. This is a rapidly expanding method of healthcare provision. Aims: We assessed the demographic and disease profile of refugee patients attending a new telehealth clinic, and calculated the patient travel avoided. We examined technical challenges and assessed the performance of two videoconferencing solutions using different bandwidth and latencies. Methods: We audited the first 120 patients attending the telehealth clinic. During consultations, the patient was with the general practitioner (GP) and linked by internet videoconference using VIDYO, GoToMeeting or Skype, to the specialist..