Sandy Baird, Senior Clinical Scholar specialising in equine orthopaedics at the Weipers Centre, University of Glasgow, was recently awarded The Winston Churchill Memorial Trust Travelling Fellowship Award in the animal welfare category, and has just returned from his travels.

Sandy's particular area of research and expertise is an overlap between current human medical developments and veterinary medicine, in this case telemedicine.

The underlying principle of using information technology to support and transform the delivery of healthcare is at the very heart of the NHS's eHealth strategy.

"The award allowed me to travel to Florida to attend the American Telemedicine Association's annual conference in Tampa," explains Sandy Baird.

"This was an international meeting with representatives from governmental bodies such as NASA and the US Army as well as those from medical institutions, universities and industry. The conference explored the very latest developments in telemedicine and met the workers who are advancing this fast developing field."

Sandy then travelled to Michigan where the geographic and logistical issues facing providers of medical care has lead to the development of telemedicine. There he visited human projects such as baby bonding sessions via videoconferencing and veterinary medicine projects to provide medical education at a distance.

Such interest was created in the Fellowship that Sandy appeared on local TV news in Michigan's Upper Peninsula.

Media Relations Office (media@gla.ac.uk)

For more details please or to speak to Sandy Baird please contact Mike Findlay, the University Press Officer on 0141 330-3535.

The Fellowships are made to enable people from all walks of life to acquire knowledge and experience abroad that will enhance their effectiveness at work and their contribution to the community on their return.

To speak to academic experts in this field, or any other field of interest, please follow the below link and log on to the Media Directory online.

www.gla.ac.uk:443/newsdesk/media/

First published: 7 July 2004