Post by Harvard Medical School

A clever workaround for Boston traffic led to modern telemedicine. The first audiovisual telediagnostic clinic between Logan International Airport and Massachusetts General Hospital opened in April 1968. Kenneth Bird, a Harvard Medical School alum and Mass General physician, was the medical director of the airport at the time. With the roughly 3-mile commute taking an hour each way, he proposed the idea to set up a microwave dish at each location so he could examine patients through the television. Telemedicine and telehealth are now part of everyday health care for many, expanding access to care across patient populations and specialties.

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