Telehealth in the Pacific Islands: a perspective and update from the Fiji School of Medicine.
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Date
2001-10-08
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Abstract
The Fiji School of Medicine FSM has increased participation with telehealth telemedicine in general and specifically with the Pacific Public Health Surveillance Network PPHSN and the Western Pacific HealthNet WPHNet through the establishment of a WPHNet Centralised Triaging Service CTS The FSM Telehealth Telemedicine Unit FSMTU will oversee the development of the CTS which is being closely coordinated with existing clinical consultation services provided through Project Aamai and the Tripler Regional Medical Center TRMC While the WPHNet CTS will initially be concerned with distance clinical consultation the FSM mission encompasses community health and professional health education in a wide range of disciplines Currently WPHNet only serves the jurisdictions of the US associated Pacific islands but with WPHNet CTS there will be an opportunity to include new member jurisdictions that do not have political affiliation with the USA e g Cook Is Kiribati Niue Samoa Solomon Is Tonga Vanuatu etc In addition although Internet technology is expanding rapidly in the region the capacity for outside communication throughout the Pacific is quite varied Very remote areas may currently only be able to communicate by using short wave radio Others have telephone and or fax while some have E mail but not full internet capacity The FSMTU will implement mechanisms to field requests through any of these communication avenues and so the WPHNet CTS will serve as a proxy for regional healthcare providers that do not have internet access