Two teleradiology applications with the added-value of teleconsulting are described: CARE, a high level diagnostic oriented application with videoconference and image and cursor synchronization based on SUN stations, and a, a lower level PC-based application oriented to the transmission of patients' results, reports and associated images. Their technical characteristics and solutions adopted are presented together with the context in which they have been developed and thought to f i t in.
General context of health care in CatalunyaCatalunya is placed in the north-east corner of Spain, next to the frontier with France. It has a surface of 32.000 km2 and population of about 6 million inhabitants, 3 million in the metropolitan area of Barcelona (the main city with 1,8 million people).Figure 1. Geographical situation of Catalunya and main cities * UDJAT, Image Laboratory, Parc Tauli s/n, 08208 Sabadell, Spain 0-8186-7560-8/96 $5.00 0 1996 IEEE Proceedings of IMAC '95In the last years there is the tendency to medium-sized hospital mergers (hospital consortia) and collaborations for cutting costs down: management, laboratory, radiology departments, etc. So, a more often found situation is having radiological services distributed in several buildings. Also, there is a closer relationship between out-patient and inpatient attendance, and a growing need for reinforcing communication between inter-hospital and intra-hospital departments in all this changing structure. The result is an increasing need for remote access to information (reports and images in our case), and for consultation between distant doctors.
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