Teleconsulting, teleguiding and teleteaching: gigabit network applications in cardiology

ABC4CarE (Advanced Broadband Communication for Cardiology care and Education) is a large ICT (information and communications technology) project, initiated by the Interuniversitary Cardiology Institute of the Netherlands, which aims at online teleconsulting, teleguiding and teleteaching. The increasing bi-directional broadband possibilities have made new applications reachable and have made it possible to improve applications that were already functioning in daily cardiology practice. For teleconsulting, an application has been conceived in which cardiologists from referring and university hospitals can conduct heart team meetings in geographically separated locations. For teleguiding, an application is being constructed in which images are transferred with a maximal delay of one minute from referring to university hospitals, and for teleteaching, a 'virtual classroom' is built where students, in their own working environment, can participate in the lessons given by a remote expert.