摘要：Digital tele-echocardiography (T-E) has the potentiality to allow relevant change in
health care organization. The purpose of the paper is to analyze the scientific development around
the digital T-E to explore the successful applications and individuate the limits which hamper the
routine introduction in the National Health Care System (NHCS). A literature review was carried
out by searching for studies from 1988 to 2008. The studies have been investigated according to four
crucial issues: a) the employment of the digital T-E versus the traditional videotape registrations;
b) the evolution of the telecommunication network and T-E; c) the quality assessment of the images
after transmission; d) the economical legal and social impact of the T-E. The analysis showed
a generalized increased diffusion of the digital T-E thanks to the wonderful development of the
information technology. This diffusion was sometimes also accompanied by investigation studies on
the diagnostic accuracy and on cost-benefit analysis with special care to the economical and social
impact. The study examined some points which need to be improved to allow a better introduction
of the T-E in the NHCS as a routine exam. Among these two were the most important. The first
was the lacking of an easy and automatic methodology for the image quality assessment alternative
to the currently used methods which are highly complex, expensive and needing a long time to be
applied. The second was the lacking of a properly designed methodology for the health technology
assessment in T-E, the latter, as it is well known is a very complex and heterogeneus system embedding
parts from telematics, bioengineering, and medical physics.
关键词：tele-echocardiography, digital tele-echocardiography, telemedicine.
