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Essentials of Telemedicine and Telecare

Article in The BMJ · May 2002

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 Essentials of Telemedicine and Telecare

Hamed Akhlaghi∗, Hamed Asadi∗

Faculty of Medicine - Tehran University of Medical Sciences
[email protected]

Abstract
We describe developments in the delivery of remote healthcare. We start with alternative definitions of
telemedicine, telecare, and telehealth and trace the origins and development of them. Then look at the
technological, clinical and business drivers and identifying the main types of telemedicine and considers how
they influence patients and careers. We record the benefits of remote healthcare and focuses on the inherent
limitations and external barriers. We explain the types of data needed to transfer across the telemedicine link.
Finally, we overview the main telecommunication standards that ensure the interoperability of equipment and
the valid transmission and receipt of data.
Keywords: Telemedicine, Telecare, E-health, IT, ICT

PREFACE
This article describes developments in the delivery of remote healthcare. If we regard telemedicine as simply the
delivery of medicine at a distance, then the technique has been available since the invention of the telegraph and
the telephone in the second half of the 19th century. However, the real technical drivers have been
telecommunications and information technologies and their convergence as we enter the 21st century. Television
and digital communications have been major forces in these developments.
Alongside the technical advances has come a concern to provide high-quality, expert healthcare where it is
needed rather than to confine it to fixed points such as city hospitals or general practitioners’ surgeries. Thus, we
see better healthcare becoming available to rural and disadvantaged communities, to travelers, to people confined
to their own homes, and to military personnel in theatres of war.

Definition of Telemedicine, Telehealth and Healthcare

A 1999 definition adopted for a Congressional briefing on telemedicine in the USA produces a statement that is
even more informative without being verbose:
Telemedicine: Telemedicine utilizes information and telecommunications technology to transfer medical
information for diagnosis, therapy and education.
The medical information may include images, live video and audio, video and sound files, patient medical
records, and output data from medical devices. The transfer may involve interactive video and audio
communication between patients and medical professionals, or between those professionals without patient
participation. Alternatively, it may simply describe the transmission of patient data either from monitoring
devices (telemetry) or from medical histories (electronic patient records). Those taking part in the transfer may
be located in a GP surgery, a hospital clinic or some other environment if the occasion is an emergency.
Telehealth: Telehealth is the use of information and communication technologies to transfer healthcare
information for the delivery of clinical, administrative and educational services.
Extension to include administrative healthcare information recognizes the use of telematic services to transfer
demographic and operational information that may have little or no clinical content. Similarly, while distance
learning courses for healthcare professionals are covered by the banner of telehealth, components of these
courses may concentrate on health policy or other non-clinical topics.
In contrast, the term telecare is often used to describe the application of telemedicine to deliver medical
services to patients in their own homes or supervised institutions. Telecare utilizes information and

∗
Student of Medicine
communication technologies to transfer medical information for the diagnosis and therapy of patients in their
place of domicile [1].
Telecare: Telecare utilizes information and communication technologies to transfer medical information for
the diagnosis and therapy of patients in their place of domicile.

Origins and Developments of Telemedicine: From Beginnings to Modern Times

We can identify four phases of telemedicine development which shown in Table 1.1.
Table 1.1. Main phases of telemedicine development
Development phase Approximate timescale
Telegraphy and telephony 1840s- 1920s
Radio 1920s onwards (main technology until 1950s)
Television space technologies 1950s onwards (main technology until 1980s)
Digital technologies 1990s onwards

Technological and Non-Technological Drivers

We can identify three main drivers under this heading:
1- Computing and information technology;
2- Network and telecommunications infrastructure;
3- Technology-led society.
Non-technological drivers can be just as important as those that harness technology. We can distinguish
seven key factors that have helped, and are helping, the development of telemedicine [2]:
1- Extension of access to healthcare service;
2- Healthcare provision for travelers;
3- Military applications;
4- Home telecare;
5- Cost reduction;
6- Market development;
7- Health policy and strategy.

The Future for Telemedicine

• Moving telemedicine into the mainstream. Telemedicine will only move out of the pilot study phase and
into the sustainable mainstream if it is seen to be cost effective. This means that it must demonstrably
save money compared with equivalent, direct services or we must find new ways of quantifying
elements such as expansion of access, quality of care, patient convenience etc.
• Health policy and strategy. The benefits of telemedicine will be delayed and reduced unless
governments see telemedicine as a strategic tool and consider how it should figure in their primary,
secondary and tertiary healthcare delivery.
• Telecare. Home telemedicine would appear to have a significant role to play given the ageing
populations throughout the world. More work needs to be done on making equipment easy to use and
unobtrusive, and the cultural aspects hold as many, if not more, problems as the technical ones.
• The role of the Internet. The Internet offers almost endless possibilities for the delivery of information
and education to both careers and patients and for the empowerment of the latter group. The technology
will go some way to redressing the all too unequal balance between physician and patient, and, if used
properly, can help patients to be more closely involved in managing their own care.
• Enhancing healthcare in underdeveloped countries. Developed countries, commercial companies and
non-profit organizations can make a real contribution by assisting underdeveloped countries to establish
and improve basic healthcare.

Types of Telemedicine
The scope and categorization of telemedicine (and telecare) practice have changed as the technology has
developed. Currently, we can identify four different types:
• teleconsultation;
• tele-education;
• telemonitoring;
• telesurgery.
Teleconsultation: The medical consultation is at the heart of clinical practice. Not surprisingly, therefore,
teleconsultation to support clinical decision making is the most frequent example of telemedical procedures.
Studies have shown that teleconsultation accounts for about 35% of the usage of telemedicine networks [3].
A teleconsultation can take place between two or more careers without patient involvement or between one
or more careers and a patient. The simplest example is a telephone conversation between two physicians to
obtain a second opinion. The most frequent image of a teleconsultation, however, is of a patient and his or her
doctor communicating via a videoconferencing link. This type of link usually takes place in real time to generate
the interactive feedback (i.e. consultation) that acts upon information as it is received. The alternative store-and-
forward technology is frequently used in teleradiology for the transmission of large X-ray files at periods of low
network traffic. In these situations, the delay between receipt of information and advice is planned and causes no
disruption to treatment.
Tele-education: Online information sources, often available over the Internet, are now commonplace. These
sources can offer excellent educational material with the benefits of low cost and easy access at the desktop.
Where the information is oriented towards medicine or healthcare it fits into our definition of tele-medicine. We
can distinguish several types of tele-education depending on who is the recipient and what is the purpose of the
transmission:
• clinical education from teleconsultation;
• clinical education via the Internet;
• academic study via the Internet;
• public education via the Internet.
Telemonitoring: Telemonitoring is the use of a telecommunications link to gather routine or repeated data
on a patient’s condition. The acquisition process may be manual, in which case the patient records the data and
transmits them by telephone, facsimile or a computer/modem system. Alternatively, the acquisition may be
entirely automated so that continuous data can be submitted either in real time or in store-and-forward mode [4].
Telesurgery: Compared with the other ‘tele’ applications discussed so far, telesurgery is in its infancy [5]. It
is practiced in two ways. Telementoring, as we have seen, describes the assistance given by specialists to
surgeons carrying out a surgical procedure at a remote location. Typically, the assistance is offered via a video
and audio connection that can extend elsewhere in the building or over a satellite link to another country.’
Clearly, there is a strong element of tele-education in telementoring. The other approach is telepresence surgery,
which guides robotic arms to carry out remote surgical procedures [6]. The links allow large movements of the
surgeon’s hands to be scaled down so that very precise, tremor-free incisions can be made. The technique known
as movement scaling has the potential to allow doctors to repair damage inside vessels [5].

Benefits and Limitations of Telemedicine

Our purpose is to summarize these factors in one convenient place and to say a little more about some of them.
We can summarize the principal benefits claimed for telemedicine as follows:
• better access to healthcare;
• access to better healthcare;
• improved communication between careers;
• easier and better continuing education;
• better access to information;
• better resource utilization;
• reduced costs.
Our survey of the reported limitations of telemedicine includes the following:
• poor patient-career relationships;
• poor relationships between healthcare professionals;
• impersonal technology;
• organizational disruption;
• additional training needs;
• difficult protocol development;
• uncertain quality of health information;
• low rates of utilization.

Barriers to Progress
This section addresses factors external to telemedical practice that will nevertheless inhibit its development
unless they are either removed or clarified. Several of the barriers we consider arise from the ways in which the
remote link between the career and the patient changes how healthcare professionals work and assume
responsibility for care. knowledge barriers have to be overcome in several areas before take-up is possible, and
classify these barriers as technical, economic, organizational and behavioral. Our list of barriers focuses on
specific issues in the following categories [7]:
• telecommunications infrastructure and standards;
• cost effectiveness;
• national policy and strategy;
• ethical and legal aspects.

Types of Telemedicine Information

In a face-to-face consultation, a physician might use some combination of all five senses-sight, sound, touch;
smell and taste-to assess a patient’s condition. The first three methods are by far the most common and the
sensory data are transmitted directly from the patient to the observer. In telemedicine, however, the sensory data
are first converted into electrical impulses for transmission to the remote physician. Methods to convert smell
and taste stimuli into electrical signals are still in the experimental stage and, while the sense of touch can be
translated successfully into an electrical equivalent, the reverse process is more difficult and not well understood.
Hence, a teleconsultation relies primarily on the two senses of sight and sound. The information (useful data)
derived from these senses can be divided into four types:
• text and data;
• audio;
• still (single) images;
• video (sequential images).
Table 3.1 gives telemedicine examples of these types along with their typical file size in kilo- or megabytes
following digitization. The wide range of electronic files sizes from these sources suggests the need to match the
choice and performance characteristics of the telemedicine equipment to the clinical need. Under- and over-
specification of systems can otherwise lead to disappointment and premature abandonment of a promising
project.
Table 3.1. Typical examples of telemedicine information
Patient notes Text 10KB
Electronic stethoscope Audio 100 KB
Chest X-ray Still image l MB
Fetal ultrasound (30 S) Video 10 MB
Text and Data: Electronic documents such as reports, correspondence or medical records containing ASCII
or Unicode text and numerical information can be transmitted directly in digital format. The digitized file can be
edited with a word processor, database or spreadsheet program but this is seldom necessary, or even desirable,
since the transmitted information is invariably ‘read-only’. If a document is only available in paper format then it
can be digitized for transmission with either a scanner (e.g. fax) or a document camera. Unless the text is
subjected to optical character recognition (OCR) it will be in bitmapped format and cannot be edited [8].
Audio: The public switched telephone network (PSTN but sometimes known as the plain old telephone
system, POTS) can be used to transmit sound (e.g. speech) and establish a remote diagnosis. However, the
quality (ease of understanding) and bandwidth (capacity to carry information) of analogue telephony are seldom
adequate for medical applications. In contrast, digital signals can be transmitted over networks for large
distances without degradation. Digital signals can also be manipulated to improve system performance. An
analogue sound is digitized by sampling its amplitude at discrete time intervals to recreate the waveform. The
discrete nature of the digitization process introduces quantization or amplitude round-off errors as the digital
sample value approximates the analogue signal at a given instant. The human ear detects this error as a hissing
noise and to reduce the effect the sample value should have a resolution of at least 1 in 65536 (2^16), giving a
16-bit quantization error. Special sound cards, e.g. the Creative Labs Sound Blaster card that slot easily into a PC
are available for this purpose and, once installed, no special equipment other than a suitable microphone is
needed for teleconsultation. These cards can also receive audio output directly from medical peripherals such as
an ultrasound scanner. Under the Windows operating system found on most PCs, audio files are held in a
standardized WAV format for easy transmission and reception. Alternative formats are available for other
platforms [9].
Still Images: Still image quality is defined by the size of a pixel (picture element) in an image and the
number of gray or color levels. These parameters are determined by the quality of the scanning device which
uses photosensitive, charge coupled diode (CCD) transducers to digitize the image. The smaller the pixel size,
the more pixels there are in a given picture and the higher the resolution of the image. Flat-bed scanning devices
typically scan at up to 1200 dots or pixels per inch (dpi) while the new breed of digital cameras can easily
produce a 35 mm size transparency image with 1000 ∗ 1200 pixels, i.e. with a pixel density of over two million
[10]. Each pixel is allocated a fixed number of bits to represent its gray-scale level or color-usually up to 8 bits
(255 levels) for grey-scale and up to 24 bits (16.77 million levels) for color (depth). The human eye actually fails
to detect differences in quality at values far below these levels. However, if the number of bits is too low then
both grey-scale and color images lose resolution and tend to monochrome pictures in which detail is lost in
amorphous blocks. The American College of Radiologists (ACR) has defined two categories of teleradiology
images; small matrix or low-resolution systems must digitize 500 pixel ∗ 500 pixel ∗ 8 bit images, while for
large matrix or high-resolution, systems the required image resolution is 2000 pixel ∗ 2000 pixel ∗ 12 bit. A
single image file at the low resolution (ultrasound, magnetic resonance, nuclear medicine) standard is therefore
about 250 KB. In contrast, a single image file at the high resolution standard takes 4 MB, a factor of 16 times the
small matrix file size [11]. If a radiologist wanted a full 24-bit (true) color image of the high matrix image the
file size would be 12 MB. Fortunately, radiologists seldom require color images but teledermatologists do need
high resolution and color depth to show clearly lesions on the skin [12].
Video: Our perception of video is conditioned by television to the extent that a videoconference between
patient or career and consultant is regarded as the normal practice of telemedicine. Where video is needed to
demonstrate a patient’s mobility after a hip replacement, it is usually sufficient to use a commercial
videoconferencing unit rather than the much more expensive broadcast television. An important consideration
for international teleconsultations is the compatibility of the analogue video signals, and therefore the video
equipment, in different countries. There are two widely used formats for analogue video:
• the National Television Standards Committee (NTSC) system adopted in North America and
Japan, having 525 lines per picture and a frame rate of 30 pictures per second;
• the Phase Alternating Line (PAL) system used throughout Western Europe and Australasia,
having 625 lines per picture and a frame rate of 25 pictures per second.
France, Russia and the former Warsaw Pact countries have a third system, Sequential Couleur à Memoire
(SECAM) but this appears to find little use in telemedicine. Most modern television receivers and video
recorders are able to convert signals from one standard to another. The Common Intermediate Format (CIF) is a
format introduced to provide compatibility between NTSC and PAL and offers a lower resolution of 288 lines
per picture at 30 pictures per second [13].
Still Image and Video Compression: If still image sizes create problems for image storage and transmission
then you can imagine the difficulties presented by video pictures. A CIF video image of 352 x 288 pixels with an
image depth of 24 bits occupies 0.304 Mbytes. At a transmission rate of 25 images per second, the system has
therefore to move 7.5 MB per second. Even a quarter-size (QCIF) image of 176 x 144 pixels requires a rate of
1.9 MB per second. To reduce these problems and transmission costs, digitized images are therefore compressed
in size by hardware or software before transmission and the receiving station then decompresses the transmitted
image to display it. Image compression may be lossless, in which case the compression1 decompression (codec)
algorithm is reversible without losing data or the full resolution of the original image. Alternatively, the
algorithm can be lossy, in which event it discards data to achieve higher compression ratios and decompression
cannot recover the original image with its full definition. Lossless compression ratios are typically 1.5-3:1
whereas the lossy equivalent may reach ratios of 20 or even 100:1. Except in some radiology applications, lossy
compression is usually acceptable for telemedicine work. The lossy compression standard for still images is the
Joint Photographic Expert Group (JPEG). JPEG can operate on any number of colors. For digital video files a
JPEG compression ratio of 100:l may still not be enough. Thus, to push the QCIF image in the previous example
down an ISDN-2 line operating at 128 kilobits per second (Kbps) demands a compression ratio of nearly 120:1.
A different codec known as the Moving Picture Expert Group (MPEG) is therefore used for video images,
MPEG uses a form of frame differencing or motion prediction based on the assumption that only small parts of a
video image change from one frame to the next. If this is so, then a frame sequence can be recaptured by storing
the differences between successive frames and adding these to a decompressed base image. The base image is
updated with a new fully compressed ‘key’ frame from time to time to preserve quality, especially with images
that contain a lot of rapid motion. MPEG is an asymmetric codec, taking longer to compress the image, so that
decompression is more efficient and faster. There are several alternatives to JPEG and MPEG, including some
developed especially for radiology work. Table 3.2 gives some examples [14, 15].
Table 3.2. Typical telemedicine data and compression ratios
Single Uncompressed Compressed Compression
Data type
image size file size (MB) file size (KB) ratio
Radiograph 2000 ∗ 2000 ∗ 12 5.7 285 20 : 1
Pathology (microscope image) 800 ∗ 600 ∗ 24 1.44 96 15: 1
Dermatology image 1280 ∗1024 ∗ 24 3.9 980 4:1
CT data set (20 images) 256 ∗256 ∗ 8 1.3 650 2:1
Frame Rate and Bandwidth
Video frame rates of 25 discrete pictures per second and above fool the human brain into perceiving continuous
and smooth motion. However, when video compression takes place, the display frame rate may fall due to the
time needed to decompress the images. The effective frame rate may drop to 7.5, 10 or 15 frames per second. At
the lower rates, the sequence of events on screen appears discontinuous and jerky, an effect known as motion
artifact, which can be disconcerting to patients as well as to careers, all of whom are concerned at the
consequences of missing vital information related to diagnosis and treatment. The ultimate solution to this
problem is of course to increase the bandwidth at a cost. A no-cost, sometimes acceptable compromise is to
reduce the size of the display window and hence the number of pixels needed to output a frame. Naturally, the
window size must be large enough to allow a valid teleconsultation to take place.

Telecommunications Standards
Clearly, for telemedicine to work, the units at both ends of the teleconferencing link must use the same codec
algorithms and other transmission protocols. To ensure compatibility the United Nations International
Telecommunications Union (ITU) has defined a range of standards to guarantee interoperability even if the
videoconferencing equipment originates from different manufacturers. The most important standards are
summarized in Table 3.3 [16].
Table 3.3. Important ITU videoconferencing standards
Standard Purpose
H.320 The oldest (1993) videoconferencing standards for communication over ISDN
H.323 An updated standard for videoconferencing over local area networks (LANs) and the Internet
A protocol for videoconferencing over the standard telephone network H.324 can also be used over
H.324
ISDN so it may eventually supersede H.320
H.261 The codec defined in H.320 (for CIF images)
H.263 The codec defined in H.320 (for QCIF images)
T.120 A suite of protocols to allow concurrent users to use whiteboards and annotation etc

The Building Blocks of Teleconsultation Systems

There are many ways to distinguish the building blocks of a teleconsultation system. For simplicity, we shall
employ a model that specifies the following four components [17]:
• the videoconferencing system;
• multipoint systems;
• the image display system;
• telemonitoring devices.
The total cost of a teleconsultation site designed around these building blocks is typically US$ 50000-100000
The Videoconferencing System: This component is the (frequently commercially built) unit that organizes
the transmission, reception and storage of information from the teleconsultation process.
Multipoint Systems: Most of our descriptions and examples of teleconsultation systems have assumed
implicitly that there are two transmitting/receiving stations in the videoconferencing link-up. This is not a
technological restriction, however, and multiple stations are quite possible. The technical approach depends upon
the telecommunications protocol. H.320 systems operating with the ISDN standard are essentially point-to-point
systems and they need a hardware device known as a multipoint control unit to manage the ISDN lines and hold
a multipoint conference. Alternatively, H.323 systems using Internet protocols require a hardware or software
multi-point conference server to route the audio and video streams to the conference participants [18].
The Image Display System: The image display is a critical part of the teleconsultation system since it is the
main substitute for the visual examination carried out by the physician in a face-to-face consultation.
Technologists distinguish between image fidelity and image information content. Image fidelity describes the
closeness to the original image, be it a view of a person’s eye or an X-ray film. Fidelity can be described by
physical measurement such as luminance, dynamic range, resolution and so on. Image information content is
more subjective and reflects the amount of information needed to detect diagnostically important features. The
highest quality is often not necessary to acquire sufficient information for the desired purpose. Since quality
usually has a cost element to it, there is also financial benefit in choosing equipment that is ‘fit for purpose’ [19].
Telemonitoring Devices: The main task in most teleconsultations is visual examination of a patient. Even in
telepsychiatry, body language and disposition are important cues to the patient’s mental condition. When,
however, further diagnostic information is needed then it can be obtained from medical peripherals that act as
telemonitoring devices.
 Special versions of common instruments such as stethoscopes, blood pressure monitors and microscopes
have been designed so that their output in the form of audio, electrical or video signals can be fed directly into
the videoconferencing system and retrieved at the remote site. Table 3.4 lists some common instruments that can
be used in this way [17].
Table 3.4. Medical instruments as telemonitoring devices
Type of device Examples
Common diagnostic devices Stethoscope , Otoscope Dermoscope , Vital signs monitor
Common imaging devices Echocardiogram , Angiogram Ultrasound , Microscope
Common surgical devices Laparoscope , Endoscope Duodenoscope , Colonoscope

Service Considerations
It is time to look at how we connect the stations together. If the link is confined to a single site then it may be
possible to install a local area network (LAN) system. More often than not, however, we need some form of
wide area network (WAN) operating over extended distances, Ultimately, the nature of the clinical information
conveyed during the teleconsultation ordains the minimum bandwidth of the network. If real-time requirements
exceed the existing bandwidth then it may be necessary to revert to store-and-forward techniques or some other
strategy to achieve the required utility. The alternative is to install a purpose-built infrastructure but this
approach may be prohibitively expensive unless the cost can be shared with other users. Bandwidth rates vary
considerably from about 1.2 Kbps for some mobile telephones to 1000 Mbps for transmission through fiber-optic
cables. Table 3.5 illustrates the range of options that we shall describe in this section, in order of increasing
transfer rate. The reliability of most of these different systems is extremely high especially now that much of the
PSTN network is digital. The main operating problem arises with shared bandwidth systems such as the Internet,
where the service can suffer if there is intensive traffic from other users. More modern protocols such as
asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) can reserve bandwidth and release it on breaking the connection [20].
Table 3.5. Telecommunication options
System Data transfer rate Advantages/disadvantages
PSTN 56 Kbps Cheap, ubiquitous ,slow ,not suitable for high resolution
ISDN (basic rate) 128 Kbps Cheap, flexible, slow, patchy availability
ISDN (Primary rate) < 2 Mbps Fast, high quality Expensive, patchy availability
Satellite < 2 Mbps High quality, remote access, expensive
Wireless < 2 Mbps Convenience, free movement, new technology, limited standards
Microwave < 20 Mbps Good quality, inexpensive to run, line of sight only, short distances
Leased lines 64 Kbps-50 Mbps Reliable, expensive, inflexible
ATM, DSVD, ADSL 155 Mbps High bandwidth, expensive, may be superseded

Public Switched Telephone Network: This low bandwidth option is still attractive because of its massive
presence throughout the world. The theoretical bandwidth of 56 Kbps is only reached in the most well-
maintained installations but in practice2 is sufficient for audio, video and data sharing, especially when used
with the latest high speed processors, compression algorithms and video display software.
ISDN: Integrated services digital network (ISDN) is, as the name suggests, a purely digital service although
it operates over standard telephone lines, effectively replacing the PSTN system. The basic rate interface (BRI)
comprises two 64 Kbps (B) channels and a 16 Kbps data signal (D) channel. The primary rate interface (PRI)
multiplies the number of B channels to up to 30 (in Europe) with a single 64 Kbps D channel. Channels can be
coupled together so that a two-channel BR1 (ISDN-2) system can work at 128 Kbps and a six-channel PR1 set-
up can function at 384 Kbps, which is fast enough to provide smooth motion video under most circumstances.
Higher rate PR1 lines can produce rates up to 2 Mbps, giving very high quality images. ISDN connections are
highly flexible since extra lines can be added later and the technology can be used for multipoint control. It is
often the first choice for telemedicine.
Satellite: Expense is the severest criticism of satellite systems but they can be used ‘where no other
technology can go’. This flexibility is truly global and the technology has been used to establish telemedical
links in developing countries as well as mobile links to areas where natural disasters have occurred.
Wireless Technologies: Healthcare applications include online information retrieval for physicians for test
results or access to databases during ward rounds, two-way communication between careers and patients, for
example, to alert patients to take prescribed medication and have them confirm their adherence, the reissue of
prescriptions, and the communication of news about diseases or services. In addition, the new Bluetooth
technology allows mobile devices to communicate with computers within a 10m distance without physical
connections, providing for patient monitoring and emergency alarms to remote locations.
 Dedicated Wide Area Connections: The last three entries in Table 3.5 are all examples of dedicated wide
area connections, i.e. those that are permanently devoted to organizational use rather than dial-on-demand use by
the general public. The first example, microwave connections, are expensive to install but cost very little to run.
Bandwidth is high, typically 2-10 Mbps, but their chief disadvantage is that there must be an unobstructed line of
sight between stations, meaning that the stations have to be less than 30 km apart, less in fog! Consequently,
microwave networks are using LANs, often in urban areas, and connecting buildings on adjacent sites.
Leased lines are the oldest type of wide area connectivity and were installed by many large organizations
during the 1980s. They are essentially private lines that offer direct, dedicated connections between points. The
lines are leased monthly from a local or long-distance carrier and are priced on the basis of distance and
bandwidth.
Bandwidths range from 64 Mbps (T0), through 1.55 Mbps (T1) to 45 Mbps (T3). Leased lines are attractive
to organizations with stringent security requirements and very high usage rates, where dial-on-demand would be
more expensive. Asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) is a cell relay technology that uses fixed-length data
packets and transmits these asynchronously by dropping them into available cells as they pass (as on a fixed-
speed conveyor belt) the transmitting station. The speed of transmission adapts to the available band- width of
the media (twisted pair, coaxial, optical) so that ATM buffers data and can send voice, data and video over mid-
speed (56 Kbps to 1.5 Mbps) lines or high speed (155 Mbps) lines and even at multi-gigabit per second rates.

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[15] Della Mea V, Pre-recorded telemedicine, in Wootton R and Craig J (eds) Introduction to Telemedicine, Royal
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[16] See the paper by TeamSolutions, Video Conferencing Standards and Terminology, at the web site
http://www.teamsolutions.co.uk/tsstds.html
[17] Ash A, Telemedicine: technology and equipment enabling new models of healthcare delivery, Informatics in
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[18] See the paper by TeamSolutions, Desktop Video Conferencing, at the web site
http://www.teamsolutions.co.uk/video.html
[19] Young J W R, Displays in Picture Archiving and Communication Systems, 1998.
[20] Falconer J, Telemedicine systems and telecommunications, in Wootton R and Craig J (eds) Introduction to
Telemedicine, Royal Society of Medicine, London, 1999, Chapter 2

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