BACKGROUND: Telemedicine is use of the new computer-based communication technologies for medical purposes. It augments the exchange of scientific information, while its applications in the fields of patient care and medical education cover remote diagnosis and therapy as well as remote education and training. METHOD: This article reviews the development of telemedicine and its application to specialties such as anaesthesiology, dermatology, medicine, surgery and pathology at the University Hospital of Basle, Switzerland. RESULTS: Since 1980 the Department of Medicine has held multidisciplinary teleconferences for expert consultation and medical education. Since 1992 the Institute of Pathology has been linked to remote hospitals for real-time biopsy, and, since 1997, remote dermato-histopathological diagnosis has been performed in conjunction with a number of centres and practitioners. International academic teleconferences have been held in the field of surgery since 1986 and there is an interactive education programme via telemedicine in the field of anaesthesiology. The technology in use must be adapted to needs: since few practitioners are currently connected to the Internet, teleconferencing will still be the rule in the Department of Medicine. Remote diagnosis in dermatology and pathology requires high-resolution images transmitted by self-developed software via 64 Kb/s ISDN connection, while surgery works with ISDN teleconferencing at 384 Kb/s to ensure live transmission of surgical procedures with high-quality images. CONCLUSION: Our practice, based on several hundred cases, suggests that telemedicine is useful in simplifying and expanding access to remote interdisciplinary expertise, as well as improving medical education in a number of specialties. Telemedicine's multidisciplinary approach is to be recommended.