Pages 98-101 in G. Pétursdóttir et al., eds. Circumpolar Health 93. Proceedings of the 9th International Congress on Circumpolar Health, Reykjavík, Iceland, June 20-25, 1993. Arctic Medical Research. 1994;53(Suppl.2)
Pages 98-101 in G. Pétursdóttir et al., eds. Circumpolar Health 93. Proceedings of the 9th International Congress on Circumpolar Health, Reykjavík, Iceland, June 20-25, 1993. Arctic Medical Research. 1994;53(Suppl.2)
The RGIT Survival Centre Ltd. is currently responsible for providing medical care for workers in 3 remote areas: the Antarctic, the North Sea, and desert areas of the Middle East. These systems are based on simple telemedical methods in that the remote practitioner who may be first aider, paramedic, or doctor relies on specialist advice from distant base. The speed and quality of this advice is dependent on the quality of clinical information received by the base. The European Space Agency has commissioned the British Antarctic Survey Medical Unit to evaluate the methods currently used, to highlight shortcomings, and to recommend and test improvements. As a part of this project, simulated medical consultations were set up at (1) an Antarctic base and (2) deep field sites in Antarctica to test the efficacy of a medical assessment questionnaire to report with speed and accuracy on the condition of the patient. Possible medical scenarios were selected ?blind? from a list of 30 likely cases with a script for the patient. The experiments have demonstrated that the skilled first aider may be a very effective remote practitioner but that training of the remote practitioner, particularly in examination skills, and of the base doctor in communication skills must be improved to make optimal use of the telemedicine system.