Office: (877) 727-6800
Fax: (877) 870-4890
www.DarkHorseMed.com

Telemedicine provides the veterinary practitioner the opportunity to offer high quality care for their clients by utilizing a nationwide network of board-certified specialists. With a high-speed internet connection, a practitioner can transmit ultrasound, radiograph and cytology images along with pertinent case information for interpretation.

Telemedicine Advantages

Our telemedicine service can help the referring veterinarian with:

• Radiograph interpretation
• Ultrasound imaging technique and image interpretation
• Cytology interpretation
• Generation of a problem list
• Generation and prioritization of differential diagnoses
• Creation of a diagnostic and therapeutic plan

Once you as a practitioner feel comfortable performing an ultrasound exam and interpreting the images, there are still many benefits of telemedicine. Telemedicine may reduce interpretation error rates, help retain case management, provide a second opinion for your clients, raise the perceived value of your services and increase compliance for additional procedures.

Specialists

All of our telemedicine specialists are board-certified in small animal internal medicine, oncology, cardiology, radiology, clinical pathology or exotics medicine.

DarkHorseMed

Telemedicine cases may be sent directly to the telemedicine website (www.darkhorsemed.com), or via VetPACS versions 3.5.x and higher. Each sending clinic will be given their own username and password to log onto the website so that they may view all archived images and reports.

Reporting Process and Turnaround Time

Our service offers the option for a verbal consult for all cardiology and internal medicine cases. The verbal consult is a critical part of a successful telemedicine consult, as the exchange of case information and specialist's impressions and recommendations often cannot be fully captured with written communication only. If a consult is requested by you to have a written report only, the specialist may request that the verbal consult be added before making case recommendations. In all cases, a more accurate consult will result if all case information, including history, physical examination findings, recent lab work and radiographs are included for the specialist to review.

The verbal consult is usually within hours of submission when a case is sent during business hours, with a thorough written report for each case available within one business days. The verbal consult is given to a veterinarian at the practice where the animal is scanned. Click here for more details about our verbal consult policy. All radiology consult written reports are available within one business day.

Components of a Successful Telemedicine Exam

• Patient's species, breed, sex, age, weight
• Chief complaint
• History
• Pertinent laboratory results and other diagnostic studies
• Radiographic images*
• Ultrasound images**
• Reason(s) for ultrasound study
• Your ultrasound findings
• Cytologic images
• Differential diagnoses
• Working diagnosis
• Any specific questions

*Radiographic images
Radiographic images sent can include digital radiographic images, scanned radiograph films, or less optimally, digital photographs of radiographs on a viewer box. It is good practice to send radiograph images with any cardiac and abdominal ultrasound cases as they provide an overview, or ‘map’ of the region in question and this greatly aids in the interpretation of the ultrasound images. As each ultrasound is only a few millimeters thick, much perspective can be gained with concurrent viewing of the region radiographically.

**The ultrasound telemedicine exam
High quality ultrasound images must be sent for a successful telemedicine exam. Enrollment in the Sound Seminar Series is the first step to success in obtaining high quality images. The hands-on graduated courses contain material for true basic, intermediate and advanced level seminar progression. Each level of instruction is designed to fit with the next, for optimal review without unnecessary repetition. These courses will provide you with established scanning protocols for abdominal & cardiac ultrasound telemedicine exams. These protocols are essential in providing the specialist the opportunity to provide you with a diagnostic telemedicine consult. By following these protocols you will optimize your ability to provide the specialist with a representative exam.