In the world of today, the revolutionary changes brought about by technological developments and the emergence of new information infrastructure cannot be ignored. Recent spread of the Internet enables us to practice Tele Medicine and it can be of equal potential to developing countries. Regarding this new clinical modality, I attended the Tele-Medicine conference in August at Finland invited by Dr. Takeshi Ustumi, Chairman of GLOSAS/USA. Also this project was supported by Dr. Mitsugu Simmyo, chairman of the Japanese Medical Society of America. Actually, Finland is not a developing country but a well established networking country. Does everyone know NOKIA, a famous mobile phone company, comes from Finland?

There were 50 attendants came from worldwide. 5 days session including Finnish sauna meeting, Finnish dinner lecture was held in Tampere, the third largest city of Finland. Unlike New York, there was quiet, clean, and friendly atmosphere around the city.

I demonstrated the Tele-Medicine by sending the live pictures of echocardiographic stress test from Finland to New York using ISDN line at 384 Kbps. It is about 8 times faster than current home-use modem. Successively, Dr. Shunichi Homma, director of echocardiography in the Columbia University, gave a lecture for prevention of heart attack from NY through this videoconferencing network. There was no time lag and the image qualities were adequate for making a distant clinical consultation.

Tele-Medicine has many potential social and economic benefits. Next workshop will be held at Tokyo, April 2000. At that time, fast Internet system such as DSL (Digital Subscriber Line) will be available at $50 per month in the U.S. It will run 100 times faster speed than 56 Kbps modem. By considering all of the interrelated technologies through the conference, I have realized that technologies are not ends in themselves and dynamic change will take place in the medical communication field.

Shin Takuma, MD
Columbia University