Specialist medical treatment requires highly skilled medical staff and often very expensive, non-portable equipment. For people who are able to be diagnosed and have access to such skills and resources, treatment may be possible. For many others, especially those who live outside of major population centres, diagnosis and treatment is often beyond their means.

Optical fibre, with its effective unlimited capacity, has the opportunity of making these scarce skills and equipment available to a much wider population. Remote medicine is rapidly becoming a reality, and in the not too distant future regional and remote communities will be able to gain access to medical treatment once only available to their city based counterparts. Even remote medical procedures using local robots and remote surgeons are possible, enabled by broadband telecommunications and the continuous advancement of medical technologies.