India, May 6 -- As emergency departments across Australia continue to struggle with overcrowding and ramping, alternative virtual EDs - where specialist emergency doctors provide urgent care consults with patients via a phone or video chat - have been seen as one solution to reducing the number of people presenting to hospital.

Now, a new research collaboration led by Flinders University will seek to ensure the services are running as best they can, thanks to almost a $1 million in funding from the National Health and Medical Research Council.

Led by health economist Professor Jonathan Karnon from Flinders University's College of Medicine and Public Health, the project will work with current virtual EDs across five states to compare the...