Abstract:Until recently, teleconsultation was performed by transferring the patient from the Accidents and Emergency department, to a specially equipped room, or by moving large and heavy machinery to the patient trolley. Both these solutions were impractical if not impossible in the majors or resuscitation areas of the department. Recently, performance indicators of dealing with 90% of patients within four hours were introduced for A&E departments in the UK, so the pressure is on to rapidly deal with patients in the majors or trolley area of the department. This paper presents an integrated system called MedLAN dedicated for use inside the A&E department. Its purpose is to wirelessly support high-quality live video, audio, high-resolution still images and networks support from anywhere there is WLAN coverage. It is capable of transmitting all of the above to a consultant sitting at a computer terminal either inside or outside the hospital. To implement this, it makes use of the existing IEEE 802.11b/g wireless technology.This paper shows that the new system is capable of delivering telemedicine with a small light trolley without any trailing wires in the all important trolley area of the department, which now needs a lot of consultant input to meet UK regulations of 90% of all patients to be discharged or admitted within four hours. The equipment is safe to use and can easily move from one area of the department to the other.

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