ADSL Teleradiology at Medway Maritime Hospital

The Medway Maritime Hospital, Gillingham in Kent is an acute general hospital with a catchment population of 340,000 and has a very busy multi-specialized radiology department undertaking about 160,000 examinations a year. The department has recently acquired a new Toshiba Aquilion Multi-slice CT scanner. With this came the opportunity and demand to increase its use particularly outside normal working hours, which lead to the development of the existing teleradiology link. The old scanner was linking to the regional specialist centre by an ISDN line. This was felt to be slow and expensive and that the introduction of the new scanner gave the opportunity to explore the use of stateof-the-art technology as a method of transmission, i.e. broadband ADSL, in order to provide a fast and efficient service and thereby enhancing patient care and management.