Telemedicine in remote Australia: The Royal Flying Doctor Service (RFDS) medical chest program as a marker of remote health

Introduction: Remote communities across Australia lack the ready access to medical care generally afforded to metropolitan populations. The Royal Flying Doctor Service (RFDS) medical chest program provides medical resources to these communities allowing medications to be dispensed in conjunction wit...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Rural and remote health 2018-01, Vol.18 (4), p.1-10
Main Authors: Cherry, John J, Rich, Warren C, McLennan, Peter L
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adolescent
Adult
Aged
Aged, 80 and over
Analgesics
Aviation
Care
Child
Child, Preschool
Disease
Ethnicity
Fatalities
Female
Health care
Health services
Histamine
Humans
Infant
Infant, Newborn
Infectious diseases
Injuries
Male
Medical care
Medical supplies
Medical telematics
Middle Aged
Patients
Quality control
Queensland
Remote Consultation - methods
Remote Consultation - statistics & numerical data
Royal Flying Doctor Service of Australia
Rural areas
Rural Health - statistics & numerical data
Rural Health Services - statistics & numerical data
Rural population
Services for
Skin diseases
Telecommunication in medicine
Telemedicine
Variance analysis
Young Adult
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Summary:Introduction: Remote communities across Australia lack the ready access to medical care generally afforded to metropolitan populations. The Royal Flying Doctor Service (RFDS) medical chest program provides medical resources to these communities allowing medications to be dispensed in conjunction with a telehealth consulting service. More than 3000 medical chests are located throughout Australia and each year the Queensland RFDS conducts approximately 20 000 telehealth consultations. The aim of this study was to review the use of the medical chest model within the state of Queensland and to analyse changes in the medical chest program from 10 years earlier to evaluate the changing healthcare needs of remote Australian populations. Methods: All telehealth consultations and items dispensed from the medical chests were reviewed over a 1-year period from 1 July 2013 and 30 June 2014. Items dispensed were categorised and compared to those in 2005-06 in absolute terms by one-way ANOVA and proportionately by χ with Fisher's exact test. Consultations using the medical chest were categorised and compared to those in 2005-06 by χ with Fisher's exact test. Results: The number of telehealth consultations conducted in 2013-14 (N=20 707) was not different to the number conducted in 2005-06 (N=21 470). Fewer items were dispensed from the medical chests in 2013-14 (3936 total items) than in 2005-06 (8607 total items; p
ISSN:1445-6354
1445-6354
DOI:10.22605/RRH4502