Telemedicine at the University of Texas Medical Branch; world leaders in telemedicine and telehealth

The AT&T Center for Telehealth Research and Policy at UTMB

Daily FYI

September 29, 2009

First Video Laryngoscopic Intubation Performed via Telemedicine

Source: Sys-con

The Department of Emergency Medicine at The University of Arizona College of Medicine Tucson, led by Dr. John C. Sakles, recently performed the first telemedicine-assisted video laryngoscopic intubation using the GlideScope® Video Laryngoscope to assist Northern Cochise Community Hospital, a small, rural healthcare facility in Southern Arizona.

Frost & Sullivan Free Webinar Presents U.S. Telemedicine and Its Future in U.S. Healthcare

Source: PRNewswire

The Healthcare practice at Frost & Sullivan is pleased to announce its 2009 Quarterly Analyst Briefing Presentation on the U.S. telemedicine industry to be held on Wednesday, September 30, 2009 at 8:00 a.m. PT.

This year has held much talk and debate regarding healthcare reform. While there is no doubt issues must be addressed within the U.S. healthcare system, solutions such as electronic medical record (EMR) acceptance, or even payer reform, will not be a cure-all for the complex issues present in this market. Even complex solutions such as telemedicine by no means solve all of these problems, but instead look to be a critically important piece of the puzzle heading into the future of U.S. healthcare.

CHRISTUS center offers homeless clients psychiatric help via telemedicine

Source: Catholic Health Association of the United States

Homeless men and women seeking help at the CHRISTUS Our Daily Bread center in Galveston, Texas, now have access to free psychiatric services via videoconferencing, through a partnership between CHRISTUS Health Gulf Coast and the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston.

Dr. Harry Faust, a psychiatrist with the medical branch, will be available to Our Daily Bread's homeless clients for four hours each week to assess, counsel and educate them and to advise them on managing their medications. The telepsychiatry services will supplement the services that CHRISTUS' center already offers the homeless. These include the provision of meals, clothes and hygiene items; individual and group counseling; help recovering from addictions; health assessments; occupational therapy; and referrals to other service providers.

Polycom Boosts Telehealth, Telemedicine Programs for Healthcare Groups

Source: TMCnet

With the growing demand of mobile solutions, healthcare companies are turning to telepresence solutions to offer patient care from miles away.

Polycom, a provider of telepresence, video and voice communication solutions, is using its telehealth and telemedicine networks to help hospitals and other healthcare organizationsextend visual communication capabilities outside of their private networks.

Advancement in telemedicine

Source: Telecommagazine

Digital wireless services provider KORE Telematics, specializing in machine-to-machine (M2M) communications, announced today that MedApps telehealth products are now certified for use on the KORE network. The MedApps Mobile Wireless Health Monitoring System relies on the KORE cellular M2M network to remotely collect, store and report timely and accurate health information from any location.

County works on indigent care options

Source: The Facts

A patient sits down on a chair in an examination room, giving Dr. Byron Brooks the chance to look him over.

A nurse reaches over and places a scope in the patient’s ear, and an image of his ear canal pops up on a TV screen.

“Is that beautiful or what?” Brooks said.

Brooks finds the image amazing, given that his patient is sitting in a room at the Brazoria County Health Department in Angleton and he is in an office at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston. The scope gives him a view of the indigent Brazoria County resident during a telemedicine visit.

Telemedicine to Help PTSD

Source: Federal Telemedicine News

The Department of Veterans Affairs is sponsoring a clinical trial to study how to improve outcomes for veterans with PTSD being treated in small VA Community Based Outpatient Clinics (CBOC) with patients that have newly emerging or chronic PTSD. Although psychotherapy and pharmacotherapy treatments for PTSD have been proven to help in controlled trials, geographic barriers often prevent veterans from accessing these evidence-based treatments so telemedicine may very well be the answer.