Patients in the Killarney area of Co Kerry will be saved more than 3,500 journeys each year annually to hospitals in Tralee and Cork by the use of information technology.
Funded by KATE - Killarney and Telecom Eireann - the Southern Health Board and the European Union, the service is not yet available elsewhere.
According to Ms Ursula O'Sullivan of the KATE public sector group: "The service will use a range of technology to bring advanced healthcare within easy reach of the community by making email, video links and other telecommunications between community-based healthcare professionals and specialists a reality. It will also enable patients to have one-to-one consultations with specialists in Tralee or Cork.
"In this way, it will create a network of doctors and hospitals who use tele-medicine and will eliminate delays associated with the posting of medical reports, thus saving time and will also often eliminate the need for the patient to travel to specialist centres.
"The technology will be used to send the results of medical tests to individual doctors immediately they are available," added Ms O'Sullivan, who works with the Southern Health Board.
A Killarney GP, Dr Bill Mangan, suggested that medical records held by the health board consultants and hospitals could also be accessible to patients and their doctors in this way.
The Telecare system will be introduced on a phased basis in the Killarney area once work is complete early next month.
The new technology will mean many follow-up visits to consultants can be done from the doctor's surgery in Killarney.
Pointing out that more than two out of three ambulance journeys are taken up with routine business of this kind, Ms Josie Buckley of Killarney Community Hospital said teleconferencing would free the ambulances for emergency use. "This service will be of benefit to everyone and will particularly help the 2,500 elderly and the incapacitated in the local community", she added.
The cost of the project is £800,000, of which £172,000 is being invested by KATE. The balance is being provided by the Southern Health Board and the EU.