Sabesan S, Allen D T, Caldwell P, Loh P K, Mozer R, Komesaroff P A, Talman P, Williams M, Shaheen N, Grabinski O
School of Medicine and Dentistry, James Cook University, Townsville, Queensland, Australia; Department of Medical Oncology, Townsville Cancer Centre, Townsville, Queensland, Australia.
Intern Med J. 2014 Feb;44(2):202-5. doi: 10.1111/imj.12339.
The fifth in a series of papers on practical aspects of telehealth, this paper discusses telehealth models that can facilitate the provision of specialist services to rural and remote patients closer to home. Some of the barriers to successful implementation of these models relates to workforce, funding and infrastructure at rural sites, as well as the traditional mindset of healthcare professionals. Therefore, the rural sector needs to be adequately resourced for telehealth models to be substantive and successful. This paper describes the development of a large teleoncology network over a vast geographical area in North Queensland. Adequate resourcing for the rural sites and undertaking quality improvement activities has continually enhanced the model over a 5- to 6-year period. The benefits of this model of care are twofold: (i) patients received their care closer to home and (ii) the workforce, service capabilities and infrastructure for the hospital in Mt Isa (a rural town 900 km away from its tertiary centre) has improved.
作为关于远程医疗实践方面系列论文中的第五篇，本文探讨了一些远程医疗模式，这些模式能够在离家更近的地方为农村和偏远地区的患者提供专科服务。成功实施这些模式的一些障碍涉及农村地区的劳动力、资金和基础设施，以及医疗保健专业人员的传统观念。因此，要使远程医疗模式切实可行且取得成功，农村地区需要有充足的资源。本文描述了北昆士兰一个广阔地理区域内大型远程肿瘤学网络的发展情况。在5至6年的时间里，为农村地区提供充足资源并开展质量改进活动不断完善了该模式。这种护理模式的好处有两方面：（i）患者在离家更近的地方接受治疗；（ii）伊萨山医院（一个距离其三级医疗中心900公里的农村小镇）的劳动力、服务能力和基础设施得到了改善。
