Clinical validation of a mobile patient-expert tele-echography system using ISDN lines

OTELO is an expert-patient mobile tele-echography system. It allows a medical expert, working in a hospital centre, to make an ultrasound diagnosis to a remote patient. A remotely controlled light robot holds and moves an ultrasound probe on the patient's skin. It reproduces, in real-time, the motion of a fictive probe held by the expert. Ultrasound images are sent from the patient's site to the expert's one located at the hospital centre thanks to two ISDN communication lines. This paper presents the architecture chosen for the whole system and focuses on the mechanical and image parts. Comparable clinical ultrasound diagnoses have been obtained using classical examinations and using the tele-echography system.