Telemedicine in practice in Arkhangelsk region, Russia: from a blank page to routine operation.

OBJECTIVES This article describes the telemedical activities in the Arkhangelsk region of north-west Russia from 1996 to 2004, and some of the outcomes of introducing telemedicine in health care. STUDY DESIGN The study acquired statistical data between 1996 and 2004 from the telemedical network in the Arkhangelsk region. The network was intended to be low cost and to function using existing communication systems. We tried to answer several questions such as: How were teleconsultations organized between the sender and recipient? What information was transferred and in which cases? How would the system develop over time? METHODS Medical data such as still images of patients, test results and medical documentation were transferred from the rural areas to two regional health institutions. The general information, the medical and the technical parts of consultations were recorded, summarized annually and analysed. RESULTS After only one year, to the project resulted in an expansion of the network and in a greater number of stations. Teleconsultations contributed to better and closer cooperation between health care institutions and to better levels of health care in the region. A total of 1,092 consultations were performed. CONCLUSIONS Our experience shows that regional telemedical networking can be successfully established in methodology and communication where no dedicated infrastructure has previously existed. At the same time, we demonstrate that telemedicine can be introduced in areas lacking a highly developed infrastructure.