Telemedicine in the blood transfusion laboratory – remote interpretation of

Telemedicine in the blood transfusion laboratory – remote interpretation of
pre-transfusion tests. J Telemed Telecare. 2007;13(7):357-62.

Meza M, Breskvar M, Kosir A, Bricl I, Tasic J, Rozman P.
Faculty of Electrical Engineering, University of Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovanio.

Abstract

We have developed a telemedicine system for blood transfusion work, to supply the
local hospital laboratory with an expert opinion from the central reference
laboratory. The telemedicine system allows remote inspection and interpretation
of pre-transfusion tests, which are performed by ID-cards (micro-tube gel
technology). The system was installed at three blood transfusion laboratories in
Slovenia, approximately 70 km apart. Validation of the telemedicine system was
performed using 99 clinical cases selected randomly from routine work. Two groups
of immunohaematology specialists participated. Group A (n = 8) performed the
read-out of the pre-transfusion tests on ID-cards by using the telemedicine
system. Group B (n = 2) then read the ID-cards independently using the standard
visual method. All 98 final interpretations which were recorded using the
telemedicine system were correct. We recorded 591 micro-tube read-outs of
agglutination strength using the telemedicine system, of which 582 were correct.
For comparison, we recorded 591 micro-tube read-outs using the standard visual
method, of which 582 were correct. The validation proved that the telemedicine
system was suitable for operational use.

PMID: 17958938 [PubMed – in process]