JMIR J Med Internet Res Journal of Medical Internet Research 1438-8871 Gunther Eysenbach Centre for Global eHealth Innovation, Toronto, Canada v1isuppl1e123 10.2196/jmir.1.suppl1.e123 Abstract TME16/459: S.I.TE. Project: Spinal injury and Telemedicine Boccaccio S 1 Marano P 1 Saracco R 1 Dal Degan N 1 1 Istituto Ortopedico Villa Salus Strada Provinciale Brucoli Augusta Augusta Italy Jul-Sep 1999 19 9 1999 1 suppl1 e123 Except where otherwise noted, articles published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research are distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. 1999 Introduction

A meeting held in Augusta, in November '98, proposed the launch of a Telemedicine application in order to improve spinal trauma rehabilitation protocols. This medical area, as many others, is still populated by diverse ideas and doubts on the possible protocol of intervention: a common protocol tying together surgical, rehabilitation, orthopaedic and neurological medicine can lead to significant results.

 Methods

Scope of this project, is to realise a network (virtual-line) using Internet, connecting Italian and German spinal centres interested on this protocol, and to allow for the exchange of data, clinical reports, images, with different levels of interaction:

Store and forward

E. mail;

Attached documents;

News group

Real time

Videoconferencing system and electronic board.

External users may have restricted access to specific information, although we can see the results of the work in a web site always kept updated

 Results

The specification phase is now complete and at present the work is progressing towards the realisation phase.

 Discussion

This application is very interesting from different points of view:

It is a new Telemedicine application.

It uses Internet, hence transportation cost are marginal and its reliance on de facto standard browser eases further applications development and portability.

It fosters a new approach to co-operative research in medicine.

 Internet Spinal Cord Injury Telemedicine