Understanding technology

When conducting a telehealth video consultation, it is vital to understand the technological factors that may affect the quality of your videoconference call. The ideal experience for users is one that is clear – from both auditory and visual perspectives. It is important to reduce static images, blurring, or disconnected calls as much as possible.

Video calls need to transfer nearly 3x more information than audio calls, and depend on a variety of factors:

• Pixels in picture
• Frame rate (pictures sent per second)
• Encoding standard of the picture

The quality of the videoconference consultation can be compromised anywhere along the line from the clinician’s device to the patient’s. Faults can be at any point and enough to disrupt a videoconference call. Thus it’s important the clinician optimises all of the technological factors within their control to maximise the quality of the consultation.

DO THIS NOW!!!

Conduct an internet speed test from the computer/laptop you intend to use for video consultations.

Use www.speedtest.net or www.ozspeedtest.com to test your speed. Results are in Megabit per second (Mbps).

A minimum advertised upload/download speed of 512 kilobits per second (0.512 Mbps) in each direction is recommended.

Next we’ll spend some time looking at each of the connectivity options and provide some tips you could consider, for both yourself and to troubleshoot with your patients, to improve the quality of your videoconferencing calls.

Let’s start by watching this video about potential reasons and solutions for a slow internet speed…..

_{(Source: acmadotgov (2018, July 12). Slow internet—how to speed things up by checking your cabling, modem or Wi-Fi. YouTube .)}