Tag Archives: Telemedicine Video Conferencing
2012
Telepresence Robots Expand Post-Surgical Care Into The Home
Medical telepresence continues to change how patients access health care across the United States. One of the more cutting edge developments in medical video communications has to do with post-operative care. Specifically, Children’s Hospital Boston is now sending telepresence robots home with patients in order to provide follow-up treatment after serious surgical procedures.
The robots, manufactured by a company called Vgo Communications, are designed to provide a direct link between practitioners at Children’s Hospital Boston and recuperating patients – one that eliminates the need for regular return visits to the facility.
As the video above reveals, the robots feature a five-inch telepresence display where a ‘face’ would normally be found, and this interface works in combination with a high definition camera, microphone, and speaker system in order to help doctors and nurses keep in touch with patients at home. This includes not just direct conversations in order to report on recovery, symptoms, and pain, but also the ability to provide high resolution images of surgical wounds in order to track healing and spot any potential problems as early as possible. The robot is not an autonomous device, but one which is remotely controlled by hospital or clinic staff over the same cellular connection that it uses for communications purposes.
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2011
Cisco TelePresence Offers Medical Personnel A New Emergency Management Tool
Telepresence technology is becoming a more common feature of medical practices around the world, but it can also serve an important health care role outside of the traditional hospital setting. In fact, the benefits of video conferencing technology are beginning to work their way into the emergency recovery plans of medical administrators forced to manage the staggering needs of disasters whose scope sometimes overwhelms the capacity of standard medical deployment.
The recent flooding that has threatened over one hundred thousand Thai citizens offers a glimpse into how video conferencing can help the medical establishment provide a higher level of care to disaster victims. In a flood situation, the rising waters pose more than just a danger to residents who are unable to evacuate in time. Rivers that break their banks also cut off access to food, drinkable water, health care, and other important resources. The disruption in travel and distribution channels can effectively isolate populations from the services and supplies that they need, including emergency medics and rescue personnel.
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2011
How Video Conferencing Professionals Used LinkedIn in October, 2011
Mobile Video Conferencing and Telepresence Most Popular Discussions
October’s activity in the Videoconferencing Professionals LinkedIn group showed just how much attention mobile telepresence and video conferencing is attracting across the industry. Larry Blakely, founder of Leaders in IT (@larryblakely), asked the group its opinion on how the consumerization of video conferencing will affect efforts to move the technology out of the business-to-business world and give it a wider rate of adoption. Blakely compared the current state of the industry to the early stages of the desktop publishing boom, where “good enough” became a substitute for professional-grade quality. Cari Zoch, Social Media Manager at LifeSize Communications (@carizoch), provided the most thoughtful reply, indicating that while companies which only occasionally require video conferencing services would be willing to sacrifice quality and reliability, those that have made it a core feature of their communications portfolio will continue to demand the best uninterrupted video streams available.
Emily Magrish, president of Magrish International Inc., followed up with a question of her own that asked why business-to-business providers were so focused on mobile video to begin with, as she was not sure just how many companies relied on video meetings that made use of mobile device endpoints. Several group members replied to let Magrish know that yes, mobile video conferencing was a big part of their corporate communications strategy. Todd Schmidt, video network architecture senior specialist for Alberta Health Services, described a scenario where doctors made use of mobile video conferencing in order to visually confirm the status of patients. This requires hundreds of video sessions per week over a secure broadband connection. Michael Stanton-Jones of Vodafone Group, and Leah Weston of AVI-SPL (@Leahwes1), also mentioned how mobile video conferencing allowed their company’s employees greater freedom while maintaining a strong link to headquarters.
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2011
Telepresence As A Business Continuity Strategy
Few events are as jarring to a business as losing communication with its key decision-makers – an eventuality that more and more companies are preparing for by turning toward telepresence. In an era where even the smallest hesitation can result in a costly missed opportunity, organizations are bolstering their executive and management communications strategies with a larger telepresence element designed to maintain business continuity in the face of extenuating circumstances.
Mobile video conferencing offers companies the opportunity to maintain contact with their most important employees, including C-level executives, should an emergency situation occur. The threat posed by a natural disaster or disruptive local or even global event that interferes with the ability of workers to access an important facility is one which all companies must plan for. Whether it’s a local flood that renders a satellite office inaccessible or whether a volcano erupting in Iceland grinds worldwide air travel to a halt, business continuity in the event of such a scenario depends on establishing the best possible communication between key members of an organization.
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2011
Telepresence Technology Helps Rural Communities Retain Skilled Workers
It used to be that part of small town life meant watching some of the best and brightest members of your community leave for better employment and education opportunities in more populous cities. But now, thanks to the increased adoption of video conferencing technology, this particular trend might be on the verge of slowing down – or even reversing. In some communities, the advantages of video conferencing and advancements in technology has allowed for the creation of partnerships between universities and other educational institutions in order to provide high quality, professional-level classes. Such classes help professionals keep their careers on track without having to leave for the big city.
One such partnership has developed between the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs and Otero Junior College, which is located in La Junta, CO. The University of Colorado provides engineering and nursing courses via a telepresence link, which has had an important impact on the rural community’s ability to provide high level healthcare to its residents.
2011
Cisco ūmi Family Expands, Adds Ability to Connect Directly with Corporate Cisco TelePresence Systems
Cisco is taking steps to bridge the gap between personal video conferencing systems like the Cisco ūmi and the corporate telepresence networks found in the Cisco TelePresence family of offerings. This past week, Cisco announced that not only will new products in the ūmi lineup be made available shortly, but that ūmi devices and software will be able to interface flawlessly with the video conferencing infrastructure currently employed by a wide range of major U.S. and global companies.
The goal of Cisco’s unifying effort is simple: help small, large and medium-sized businesses connect more directly with their clientele over a video connection. By making ūmi telepresence products completely compatible with the video conferencing solutions already deployed across the corporate landscape, Cisco is offering businesses the unprecedented ability to provide remote customer service directly in the home.
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2010
Six Ways Health Care Can Use Video Conferencing
By and large, the health care industry has lagged in adopting video communication solutions to achieve a higher level of service for their patients. But lately the tide is beginning to turn. Health care professionals are exploring ways to provide better patient care, monitor seniors, and extend services to rural areas through video conferencing technology, using specialized systems like TANDBERG’s Clinical Presence System and the Intern MXP. They are discovering how video can facilitate health care delivery in highly-effective and innovative ways, like to:
Improve collaboration. By connecting clinics and hospital chains, the health care industry can serve patients more effectively. Doctors and nurses at different geographic sites can collaborate on cases, share patient files, x-rays, MRIs, and other images that can help them make decisions faster and provide more complete care for patients.
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2010
Reaching the Hearing Impaired Via Video Conferencing
Video conferencing has become a common tool in many businesses. While it can streamline communications, hearing impaired individuals have often been left out. This is a sizable group: more than 30 million Americans are deaf or hearing impaired. TANDBERG, now part of Cisco, has worked with companies, such as Deaf Link, to develop video conferencing services for those individuals, so this area is undergoing significant growth. One reason for the interest is that businesses need to be able to communicate with deaf and hard of hearing customers in order to comply with government regulations. For instance, the Federal Americans With Disabilities Act of 1990 mandates equal access for individuals with disabilities.
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2010
Psychiatric Couches Take to the Air
Video conferencing has become popular in many business environments because it is quicker and more convenient than face-to-face communications. Those benefits are now being applied to the psychiatric profession as a growing number of practices are turning to telepresence systems to alleviate busy schedules and reach individuals in rural areas.
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2010
Five Vertical Markets Where Telepresence Has Taken Root
Telepresence can help virtually any company streamline communications and reduce expenses. While the technology could work for all, it has been widely embraced in a handful of industries, and these are their stories.
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