Telehealth in the Pacific Islands: a perspective and update from the Fiji School of Medicine.

The Fiji School of Medicine (FSM) has increased participa- tion with telehealth/telemedicine in general, and specifi- cally with the Pacific Public Health Surveillance Network (PPHSN) and the Western Pacific HealthNet (WPHNet), through the establishment of a WPHNet Centralised Triaging Service (CTS). The FSM Telehealth/ Telemedicine Unit (FSMTU) will oversee the develop- ment of the CTS which is being closely coordinated with existing clinical con- sultation services provided through Project Aamai and the Tripler Regional Medi- cal Center (TRMC). While the WPHNet CTS will initially be concerned with distance clinical consultation, the FSM mission encompasses community health and professional health education in a wide range of disciplines. Currently, WPHNet only serves the jurisdictions of the US-associated Pacific islands but with WPHNet CTS there will be an oppor- tunity to include new member jurisdictions that do not have political affiliation with the USA. (eg Cook Is, Kiribati, Niue, Samoa, Solomon Is, Tonga, Vanuatu etc). In addition, although Internet technology is expanding rapidly in the region, the capacity for outside communication throughout the Pacific is quite varied. Very remote areas may currently only be able to communicate by using short wave radio. Others have telephone and/or fax while some have E-mail but not full internet capacity. The FSMTU will implement mechanisms to field requests through any of these commu- nication avenues and so the WPHNet CTS will serve as a proxy for regional healthcare providers that do not have internet access.