What is Telehealth?

The Telehealth Programme at Children’s Hospital is an innovative health program that uses two-way interactive video to provide various health care services such as patient consultations and continuing medical education for health care professionals. His Excellency, the President of The Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, launched the programme on September 14th 2004.

Health care providers are recognising the potential for using this technology to erase the geographical barriers that separate them from their colleagues. The Video Conferencing link with The Sick Kids Hospital, Toronto, Canada allows high-quality health care to be made available to cases in need, so enhancing and standardizing the quality of medical care provided to all sectors of society.

Access to the programme will mirror routine clinical referral practice already in existence. Patients must be referred to the usual clinics or specialist at the Children’s Hospital, EWMSC. When a sub-speciality consultation is deemed necessary by our local consultants, this will be arranged through the Telehealth Programme.

The Telehealth Programme staff would like to encourage all health care providers who care for children to explore this new option for care delivery and information exchange, and refer all children whom they think may benefit from this service.