An architecture for naval telemedicine.

Navy fleets have a defined overall objective for mission readiness impacted by the health of personnel aboard the ships. Medical treatment facilities on the ships determines the degree of mission readiness. This paper describes the concepts and technologies necessary to establish a Naval telemedicine system, which can drastically improve health care delivery. It consists of various combinations of the following components: Fleet Naval Medical Consultation and Diagnostic Centers, Shipboard Naval Medical Consultation and Diagnostic Centers (hospital ship or combatant ships with medical specialists on board), and Remote Medical Referring Centers such as a ship, a small Naval station annex, or a field hospital. This Naval telemedicine architecture delivers clinical medicine and continuing medical education (CME) by means of computers, video-conferencing systems, or telephony to enhance the quality of care through improved access to research, medical and nonmedical imaging, remote consultations, patient clinical data, and multimedia medical education programs. It integrates the informatics infrastructure and provides a medical telepresence among participants.