 |
FAIRFIELD IMAGING NEWSBIRMINGHAM PILOT STUDY IMPROVES ACCURACY OF CERVICAL SCREENING An innovative pilot study, initiated by Mr. Ian Etherington, a consultant and senior lecturer at Birmingham's City Hospital, has the potential to help improve the efficiency of the national cervical screening programme. Many women with a borderline or mildly abnormal cervical smear are invited to attend hospital as an outpatient to have an investigation using colposcopy. The anxiety that colposcopy can engender is a contributory factor to the relatively high rate of non-attendance seen in colposcopy clinics in the UK. Working with a large inner-city general practice, Mr Etherington has minimised the possibility of a woman having to go to the colposcopy clinic for investigation. Instead, using IT advances and a system known as Telecolposcopy, the examination can take place in the GP's surgery. Using a Telecolposcopy system devised by Kent-based Fairfield Imaging, this examination can be undertaken by the practice nurse. Telecolposcopy is a customised PC-based telemedicine system using still and video image capture with ISDN file transmission. The transmitted images from the GP surgery are reviewed remotely by a consultant Colposcopist who conducts a rapid and specific patient assessment. Women find the familiar environment of their GP's surgery very reassuring and found the Telecolposcopy experience itself very acceptable. The major advantage to this imaginative application of existing technology by Mr Etherington is that an expert diagnosis can be made rapidly and accurately without the need for either the patient or the consultant having to travel. Said Mr Etherington: "This study has demonstrated the feasibility of using remote imaging in colposcopy linking primary and secondary care using telemedicine. "The Fairfield Imaging system has made the clinic more efficient by cutting down waiting times to the extent that we have amongst the shortest waiting times in the West Midlands for our particular service. "We were reassured to find the universal level of acceptability among women who took part. "This study has also created considerable interest from local GP's - and many from outside the region - who can readily perceive the patient and clinical benefits that this telemedicine system offers."
|