Telemedicine system necessary in disaster areas

There are problems associated with providing healthcare for elderly people living in evacuation centers or temporary housing after a big disaster. This paper introduces two telemedicine systems as tools to maintain the quality of the medical care provided for the elderly at such impromptu facilities. One of these is an electronic doctor's bag (eBag), which enables a physician at a clinic or hospital to check the condition of an elderly patient living in an evacuation center or temporary residence based on video images and biological data submitted via the Internet. The other is a tele-echographic archiving system that helps a physician understand ultrasonographic images submitted from a remote location. We discuss the functions of the telemedicine systems needed in a disaster area based on the results of a demonstration experiment carried out with an eBag, in an actual evacuation center.