Communications Crossroads - Summer 2008 - (Page 20)

ADVANCEMENTS IN TELECOMMUNICATIONS ARE GIVING SPECIALIZED HEALTH CARE PROVIDERS THE OPPORTUNITY TO BE AT MORE BEDSIDES THAN COULD EVER BE POSSIBLE IN THE PHYSICAL WORLD— WITH RESULTS THAT ARE JUST AS, OR PERHAPS EVEN MORE, COMPELLING. As with education efforts, this type of medicine especially beneﬁts those in remote and rural areas. In Kansas, there are many. “[What we’re doing] allows patients and their families to receive the highest level of care in their local town,” Cowboy says. “This is a signiﬁcant positive for these communities when you take into consideration the travel time across our state … we are now taking better care of the patient and hopefully returning them to a productive life. At the same time, family members can still take care of the farm or go to work knowing that their loved one is being monitored and supported by both a bedside and a remote team.” In Tornado Alley, it’s not uncommon for hospitals to brace for a massive inﬂux of patients, and herein lies another of the program’s beneﬁts: collaborative efforts between hospitals in statewide mock disaster coordination (the practice will help when the next F5 touches down). “In less than six seconds,” says Cowboy, “we can advise state and hospital agencies on the number of beds and ventilators available throughout 30 percent of Kansas.” The same technology not only enables doctors to monitor for trends that could be early signs of an outbreak or epidemic, but allows safer caregiver-patient communication during such an event. “We can talk to and care for the patient without breaking respiratory barriers, which would be essential in the case of [a disease such as] SARS.” One of the more recent advancements is in the screening and support of severe brain injury patients who are authorized for organ donation and the recipients themselves. Distance-caring, says Cowboy, has recently allowed two such cases to be supported hundreds of miles away from a traditional transplant center. “Several of the eICUs in our area are now working with us to have the same protocols available in their states and where our bordering states share organ donation programs.” Not surprisingly, the cables that serve as literal lifelines for the ill do double-duty as conduits for the advancement of medical knowledge. Via Christi’s program holds classes for advanced nursing degrees along with courses for student physicians and residents via broadband. “Within our CORE we are teaching nursing students from three colleges and have opened our program up to both internal and family medicine residents to participate in their training. These are the people who will be working in the hospitals of Kansas soon,” says Cowboy thoughtfully, “and we want them to be educated to the highest level that both medical and computer technology can offer. We are the foundation for future outreach.” The added bonuses are both recruitment and retention. The implementation of this technology has made many of the smaller hospitals in the network more attractive to specialists who often choose to practice elsewhere, where higher populations and renowned hospitals bring more cases relevant to their areas of expertise. Broadband allows patients come to them, often in droves. The town then beneﬁts from the growth of the medical ﬁeld, and it trickles down through the economy from there. Everybody wins. Despite the gains, there is still a long way to go, says Cowboy, whose husband is a full-blooded Navajo. She aspires to extend care of this nature to America’s Native American reservations—along with its veterans. “We just need to overcome the cost.” She believes the ﬁeld could beneﬁt greatly from grants that would help with the initial cost and set-up into hospitals—not to mention regulations that would allow imperative life-saving technology to take a top seat to the other applications of broadband. “Synchronous cardioversion,” she says, simplifying the implications of net regulation through the universal language of pop culture, “is more important than downloading an ‘N Sync video.” Learn more at NextGenWeb.org. 20 COMMUNICATIONS CROSSROADS www.ustelecom.org http://NextGenWeb.org http://www.ustelecom.org

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Communications Crossroads - Summer 2008

Communications Crossroads - Summer 2008 Up Front Contents TeleBites Delivering the Broadband Future Deriving Revenue from Today's Broadband World The Right Way to Operate Data Centers Buyers' Guide Industry Calendar Advertisers DotCom Index to Advertisers Straight Talk

Communications Crossroads - Summer 2008

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