Telemedicine will expand Graz violence clinic

A telemedicine project will expand access to the violence clinic at the Medical University of Graz, where victims are professionally examined and evidence is secured for possible court proceedings, ORF Steiermark reported.

The forensic medicine service is based only in Graz and also covers Carinthia and southern Burgenland. Regional hospitals therefore do not have forensic medicine specialists, and examinations are currently carried out by other specialists, said Sarah Heinze, head of the violence clinic.

In future, examinations will continue to take place at regional hospitals. A forensic medicine specialist will join by video to guide the examination, with the aim of improving the quality and consistency of evidence collection.

The project, called Forensic PETRA, has received 636,000 euros in funding from the province of Styria so far. It is scheduled to start in Leoben in early 2027, where doctors will also receive training. The aim is to gradually offer the telemedicine violence clinic across southern Austria.

Styria’s social affairs councillor Hannes Amesbauer said the goal was to make protection from violence available beyond the Graz area, where the existing service is well established.

There is a shortage of forensic medicine specialists across Europe. They perform autopsies, examine locations where bodies are found and analyse injuries suffered by victims of violence.

Graz currently has three forensic medicine positions, all of them filled. However, more specialists are needed to train new doctors, said Andrea Kurz, rector of the Medical University of Graz. The university can train three new specialists, but would need an additional forensic medicine specialist to expand its training programme.