Vanessa Towell, Program Manager, ASHM National Policy & Education Division
Clinical posts from members and guests of the Australasian Society for HIV, Viral Hepatitis and Sexual Health Medicine (ASHM) from various international medical and scientific conferences on HIV, AIDS, viral hepatitis, and sexual health.
Telemedicine treatment for hepatitis B: a possibility?
I was inspired by Jacqueline Clegg's report on the nurse-led outreach program for assessment and treatment of chronic hepatitis C via telemedicine in the prison setting. She told of the success of the program in which assessment for treatment was done using Clinical Nurse Consultants as the key providers providing decentralised care with specialist back up via telemedicine.
The pilot program was a success and the model was shown to be both effective and safe. It would be good to see application of this model in rural and remote settings for hepatitis B. Jacqueline said that this may be in the pipeline for a future pilot, I look forward to hearing more.