here are 110,000 people in Powys, Wales, and 4 million sheep. Despite the pastoral, decidedly low-tech setting, Powys is serviced by Telemed, a project that links doctors in rural Wales with medical experts at hospitals in Lincoln, 150 miles away. Video telephone technology has now become affordable using simple off-the-shelf personal computers coupled with ISDN lines. Telemed, Europe's most advanced medical telecommunications project, allows hospital consultants, rural doctors and nurses to set up seminars between as many as 20 sites. Originally centered on dermatology, Telemed's consultants now cover specialties such as diabetic retinopathy, pre- and post-operative physiotherapy assessment and asthma care. Recently, links have been established between rural health centers and accident and emergency units. "Patients prefer attending local teleconsultations rather than travelling to hospital clinics," says a Telemed consultant. "Our project brings the medical educator and primary health care provider together at the electronic examining table." 
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