Telepsychiatry: Psychiatric Consultation by Interactive Television

The author describes an interactive television (IATV) system set up between Massachusetts General Hospital and a medical station in Boston. The system has proven to be feasible and acceptable to individuals and institutions in the community, providing psychiatric skills on a much wider scale, in a more accessible way, and faster than any other system. The author delineates the implications and future uses that appropriately placed IATV links could have, such as significantly multiplying existing manpower and more evenly distributing psychiatric care without placing greater demands on manpower.