Professor Jane Farmer said the Highlands could lead the way

Professor Jane Farmer said medical staff may eventually diagnose and give advice to patients via video links.

The new rural health policy and management chairwoman with the UHI Millennium Institute said the Highlands and Islands could lead the field.

Prof Farmer said new technology could link patients to experts based locally or far from where they live.

The former senior lecturer at the University of Aberdeen Business School said: "We hope to be in a position where we are leading rural health policy decisions with excellent evidence that will be of benefit to government, managers, health professionals and patients.

"We need to investigate how we can provide better health care to remote populations using technology, new types of trained health professionals and teams and new systems of care, rather than allowing models to evolve that drain communities of services."