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A tele-ultrasonographic platform to collect specialist second opinion in less specialized hospitals

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Abstract

In non-urban scenarios: rural areas or small cities, there is often a limited access to specialistic healthcare due to the inherent challenges associated with recruitment, retention, and access to healthcare professionals. Telemedicine is an economical and effective way to address this problem. In this research, we developed a framework for real-time communication during ultrasound examination that combines interaction via standard video conference protocols and basic AR functionalities (commercial) and a custom-developed application. The tele-ultrasonographic platform has been installed in a rural hospital in the Tuscan Apennines, and was tested on 12 patients. The study explores the utility of the system from the local and remote clinician perspectives. The results obtained provide valuable insight: the platform and the telemedicine paradigm can reduce the costs related to the necessity to move critical patients when there is a need for a specialist second opinion. Moreover, the possibility of having an expert guiding and commenting on the fly the diagnostic examination has also a didactic power, and thus allows the local less specialized clinicians to grow in competencies over time.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Information Engineering, University of Pisa, 56124, Pisa, Italy

    Marina Carbone, Vincenzo Ferrari & Roberta Piazza

  2. Department of Translational Research and of New Surgical and Medical Technologies, EndoCAS, University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy

    Marina Carbone, Vincenzo Ferrari & Roberta Piazza

  3. Vascular Surgery Unit, Department of Translational Research and of New Surgical and Medical Technologies, Cisanello University Hospital,, University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy

    Michele Marconi, Andrea Del Corso, Daniele Adami & Raffaella Berchiolli

  4. Internal Medicine Unit, S. Francesco Hospital, Barga, LU, Italy

    Quintilia Lucchesi & Valeria Pagni

Authors
  1. Marina Carbone
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  2. Vincenzo Ferrari
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  3. Michele Marconi
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  4. Roberta Piazza
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  5. Andrea Del Corso
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  6. Daniele Adami
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  7. Quintilia Lucchesi
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  8. Valeria Pagni
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  9. Raffaella Berchiolli
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Marina Carbone.

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All the authors have no conflict of interest to declare.

Research involving human participants and/or animals

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Informed consent

All the patients included in the study signed an informed consent and the study was approved by the ethical committee of the involved hospitals.

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Carbone, M., Ferrari, V., Marconi, M. et al. A tele-ultrasonographic platform to collect specialist second opinion in less specialized hospitals. Updates Surg 70, 407–413 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13304-018-0582-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13304-018-0582-9

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