 | | Few telemedicine services, like teleradiology, have made it into large-scale routine operation. New research leader at NST and scientific editor, Richard Wootton, thinks sociologists might hold the key to solving the puzzle. Photo: Jan Fredrik Frantzen, NST. |
After 20 years as a researcher in both Great Britain and Australia, the reknowned editor of the Journal of Telemedicine and Telecare has recently taken up the position as the leader of some 50 researchers in Tromsø, Northern Norway.
During the last two decades, Wootton has worked extensively with telepaediatrics in Queensland, Australia, high-speed medical networks in the UK and planned big-scale services in Scotland. So what brings him to the outskirts of northern Europe?
''The NST in Tromsø is by far the world's largest telemedicine centre in the world. With such a large staff of highly competent reseachers it should be possible to overcome the challenges and succeding in building large-scale national telemedicine services'', he says.
Sociologists hold the key
The big issue in telemedicine is why we haven't really succeded with telemedicine yet, some twenty years into the effort. It is a fact that apart from successes like teleradiology, arguably the exception that proves the rule, the big impact has yet to come within this promising field.
So what needs to be done now? Wootton thinks that sociologists might have the answers, because in 2009, it is no longer a question of technology.
''Today you can get hold of more or less any technology you want to. But getting that technology into routine use is an organisational and human challenge. The NST has several sociologists and I think they, together with big-scale trials and research, can unlock this situation''.
Telemedicine hotline for developing countries
Richard Wootton's experience with telemedicine is undoubtably extensive. Since 1998 he has even been involved in using low-cost telemedicine to support doctors in developing countries around the world, extending expert medical advice whereever it is needed.
On a secured server in the UK, medical staff from poor countries can upload their questions, pictures, CT-scans and x-ray images. When Richard and his collegueas have forwarded the question to one of the 450 specialists on call, doctors at some 100 hospitals in developing countries can get specialist advice on difficult patient cases in just a day or two.
''I have worked with the Swinfen Charitable Trust on this since 1998. Now I am hoping we can somehow use our experiences and improve this service through NST's role as a WHO Collaborating Centre'', Wootton says in closing.
Contact information
Research leader Richard Wootton, email richard.wootton@telemed.no
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