Telemedicine for the Canadian Forces

Several nations currently use commercial off-the-shelf technology to provide telemedicine for military and civilian purposes. The vast distances and undeveloped regions that the Canadian Forces (CF) work across requires a transportable, satellite accessible telemedicine system that meets their requirements. The purpose of this thesis was to conduct an exploratory descriptive analysis to compare existing deployable telemedicine systems and identify which of those would best meet the telemedicine requirements of the CF as a viable satellite means for the CF medical community to deliver telemedicine information between a deployed force and a Canada based supporting hospital. A comparative analysis was completed in order to recommend a telemedicine system that the CF can implement and deploy with. Of the three systems analyzed, all are viable in a comparison of systems using a non-weighted set of criteria. The capabilities and limitations of a system such as cost, weight, and bandwidth can be compared individually and as an overall system. All three telemedicine systems studied are viable satellite means that the CF can use to deliver telemedicine information. The CF can now tailor a satellite delivered telemedicine system that meets the most important criteria of their requirements.