Telehealth: the general practice perspective

Three years ago the Australian Government undertook to incentivise the adoption of telehealth videoconferencing in primary care. The incentives targeted specialist consultations with patients through their general practitioner (GP), nurse, Aboriginal health worker, and aged care facility. Rural and remote patients and their GPs have benefited from improved access to specialist care in an environment where one kangaroo through your radiator can make a compelling case for remote care delivery.

To discuss some of the practical issues, challenges and opportunities related to running a GP telehealth videoconferencing ser-vice, and describe how we deliver telehealth videoconferencing in our practice.

The business case has taken a back seat to the intangible savings in travel costs, lost productivity, and capacity building of local health professionals. Intuitively, delivering medical care by telehealth videoconferencing should just be an extension of day-to-day clinical practice, and an enabler of local team care and attractive to rural people. However, there remains much to be done in quantifying the scope and applicability of remote care in this context, and opportunities to deliver quality care to rural and isolated people are yet to be realised fully.