Telepaediatrics

Abstract

Telepaediatrics is becoming increasingly popular for several reasons, including improved access to specialist care in tertiary hospitals and savings in travel costs, especially to the families concerned. There are well known examples of clinical telepaediatric services in areas such as cardiology, fetal medicine, school health and psychiatry. In addition, there is an extensive telepaediatric service in Queensland, which currently provides about 1300 telepaediatric consultations per year. It is encouraging to see a growing literature on telepaediatrics, with positive experience being reported internationally in a wide range of areas. Telepaediatrics started relatively late compared to most other telemedicine applications, but this may yet turn out to be a case of the hare and the tortoise.