Telemedicine for acute plastic surgical trauma and burns.

Visual images can enhance communication over a distance. In the UK, plastic surgery provides services over large distances by a 'hub and spoke' model. Telemedicine could help to increase the efficiency of service for plastic surgery patients. Telemedicine, along with the impending Electronic Patient Record system could combine to improve communication, patient triage, record keeping, audit and could lead to a better quality of clinical care. Another benefit could be significant cost savings. We report our experience of the introduction of telemedicine to a Regional Plastic Surgery Service. Our first study compared assessments from images and patient examinations, which gave us confidence in the use of images [Jones SM, Milroy C, Pickford MA. Telemedicine in acute plastic surgical trauma and burns. Ann R Coll Surg Engl 2004;86:239-42]. We proceeded to a 10-week evaluation of all 973 referrals to our unit. We found that the system was used for a wide variety of injuries and for 42% of the 452 patients where the system was available. Initial resistance was overcome by the ease of use of the system, with both receiving and referring clinicians reporting benefits. The third phase was a 12-week prospective cohort study of 996 patients comparing the referrals with and without the telemedicine system. The system was available for 389 patients, and used for 243 patients (63%). The groups were analysed by a chi squared test and confidence interval calculation. We demonstrated a significant difference in the initial management of patients, with 10% more being booked directly to our Day Surgery Unit. There was a decrease in number of occasions when we were unable to accept a patient due to a lack of capacity. We found no change in the patients being managed with telephone only advice. We found that telemedicine is a valuable method of providing useful preliminary information in the referral process for injured patients and often significantly modifies their treatment and/or management plan. This has implications for the use of Information Technology resources and potentially the delivery of healthcare in relation to the management of injured patients.