Comment on Wong, H. T., et al.: Comparative impact of video consultation on emergency neurosurgical referrals

The Author's explored the facility and accuracy of telephone, teleradiology, or video consultation between a large general hospital and their tertiary neurosurgical center. Although there was increased diagnostic accuracy with video consultation or teleradiology, they note that consultation via video consultation and teleradiology took considerably longer to perform than telephone consultation. In fact, the video consultation time seems excessive (1.3 ? 2.5 hr) and was associated with a high failure rate (30%). One questions the utility of a busy neurosurgical practitioner using this technology in its current form. Surprisingly, there was also no difference in the number of unnecessary transfers using video consultation, which might be expected.