Remote Outpatient Consultations - details of the broadband telehealth system which was used in the pilot trials

Duncan Stevenson

PhD student at the Australian National University, School of Computer Science

Surgeons' Room The surgeon's room contained a curved desk on which we placed video and data communications technologies. The picture shows three of my research colleagues: Matthew Hutchins sitting in the surgeon's chair and Susan Hansen and Jocelyn Smith sitting on the left and right sides of the patients' room. Three fixed always-on video streams linked the surgeons' and patients' rooms: a wide-angle overview displayed on the plasma screen at the end of the room and two close-up video sub-systems used for direct conversations between the surgeon and the people sitting in the patients' room. Two tablet displays with electronic pens let the surgeon view and annotate image and video data. The patients' room also has two tablet displays and they can also view and annotate the data. All four tablets show the same data at any one time, together with up to four sets of annotations, in a different colour for each tablet/pen. To the left the surgeon has a 2-screen display with polarised filters for viewing static 3D images or real-time 3D video from the patients' room. In the middle is a document camera and to the right is a hospital computer for displaying data from their PACS system.
Patients' Room The patients' room also has a curved desk, with the patients, family and assistant on the outside of the curve. As we see in the photo the left side is where the patient and family sit for discussions with the surgeon. The right side is where the clinic assistant examines the patient. In this photo we see an overhead camera for examining seated patients. The people in this photo in the same seats as they were in the photo of the surgeons' room
This second photo shows a bed for examining reclining patients and cameras for examining the patient. The pole-mounted camera is steerable by the surgeon (zoom, pan and tilt) and has a purpose-built laser light-show system for remotely drawing on areas of the patient as a way of guiding the assistant. The articulated arm holds a pair of cameras which can be placed at chosen points around the patient. They either give individual 2D video streams or together they give a 3D video stream and high-resolution 3D snapshots. This system also has a hand-held camera on a flexible light-path for close-up examination and a second arm holding one of the tablet displays. An additional camera is mounted on a low tripod under the table to the right. It gives a horizontal view of patients who are demonstrating walking gait and standing postures.