Telemedicine with digital video transport system over a worldwide academic network

Although the use of video in telemedicine is very helpful, the transmission of highquality moving images is difficult using conventional systems. Therefore, we have established a new system that uses the academic broadband Internet and can preserve original image quality. The digital video transport system (DVTS) is free software that transforms digital video signals directly to Internet Protocol, and is installed in standard personal computers (PCs) with network bandwidth of 30 Mbps per channel. We have connected 16 countries and regions across the Asia-Pacific Advanced Network (APAN), an international research and education consortium. Security software is used to ensure patient privacy. Over 100 connections have been used for live surgery/endoscopy and for interactive teleconferences using videos or PC presentations. Questionnaires completed by participants show that the quality of the transmitted images was good. Multiple connections have been possible with a frame rate of 30/sec and the time delay of 0.3-1.0 sec between stations. DVTS is economical and easy to set up, and this is the first instance of this advanced system over an area as large as the Asia-Pacific. Using the high-speed academic network that is available worldwide, we have recently extended our connections to the USA and Europe. We believe that with good cooperation with engineers our cutting-edge system will facilitate medical standardization beyond geographic borders in a variety of medical fields.