Thousands of ATA 2012 attendees heard Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak wax enthusiastic about the future of telemedicine in his Tuesday morning keynote event.

“I love the fact that telemedicine fits into this category of people trying to do good things for those that don’t have access. I love that,” said Wozniak to applause.

”It’s kind of cool for a general doctor to get in touch with a couple of specialists this way.”

In a wide-ranging conversation onstage with ATA President Dr. Bernard Harris Jr., Wozniak predicted that computer intelligence will soon rival human intelligence – with profound implications for health care.

“Computers are getting closer to acting like humans. Your phone knows when you’re touching it now…  and I think eventually they will be listening and looking with their cameras and microphones… You can make devices that see better than a human.

“Once a computer gets smarter than a human, then the company that uses computers will come out ahead economically.” Read More »

Tags: healthcare, telehealth, telemedicine

Sharon Gibson, Cisco’s Director of Business Transformation and Healthcare, told how Cisco developed its employee health center, LifeConnections, at a Monday morning ATA panel on “Retail and Employer-Based Healthcare Using Telemedicine.”

Although telemedicine became an aspect of LifeConnections in September 2010, two years after the first LifeConnections center opened in San Jose, it’s become a key part of the proposition. It helps the 80 domestic Cisco campuses feel they’re getting benefits comparable to those delivered at headquarters. Overseas – particularly at the Cisco Bangalore campus, site of our second LifeConnections center, where roads and traffic pose a 24/7 challenge – telemedicine simply enables better patient access to health care.

Throughout the Cisco community, engaging employees is the prime goal for LifeConnections. The initial intent was to use health care to enhance employee productivity among a young workforce not always focused on the subject. Most health care discussions in the US revolve around cost-cutting and efficiency, which often means less access for patients, Cisco took the opposite view with LifeConnections – that more access, and more care opportunities, would lead to positive cost results going forward. 

It’s worked – and telemedicine is a key part of the equation. Insights Gibson shared at ATA:

• Screenings, events and provider enthusiasm are key to driving adoption over time.
• Different approaches suit different geographies. In Bangalore Cisco will soon have five satellite offices using telemedicine, all open 24 hours a day, six days a week.
• There’s opportunity to deliver specialty care using telemedicine technology. Working with Stanford University, LifeConnections has just launched our first teledermatology clinic.

More larger organizations are getting into corporate health care with on-site clinics – you need about 1,000 employees to make it a good investment – but Cisco is proud to be blazing trails and and winning high employee satisfaction in the process.

There’s evidence that others see lessons in LifeConnections.  A co-panelist of Gibson’s pointed out that US government employees who fall ill on duty overseas are often flown home or to regional health centers at great taxpayer expense and productivity loss. A telemedicine solution could mitigate much of that. “What you’re doing at Cisco, Sharon,” he said, “needs to be shared with the State Department and the Commerce Department.”

It’s good to hear Cisco’s work is influencing others. Cisco, too, feels we have plenty to share about telemedicine.

Tags: connected health; care at a distance, telehealth, telemedicine

2012 a “Pivotal Year” for Healthcare Transformation, Says Shehata in ATA Preview.

This is the year Cisco healthcare technology moves from creating simple collaboration environments to true innovation workspaces that generate value, particularly for accountable care organizations (ACOs) focused on quality and efficiency, said Cisco’s Ash Shehata in an online briefing to industry thought leaders.
Shehata, Cisco’s Senior Executive Director, Healthcare Business Transformation for the US, Canada, and Latin America, addressed invited bloggers and web journalists in advance of the American Telemedicine Association conference April 29 in San Jose.
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Tags: Accountable Care, ACO, ATA, healthcare, telemedicine

The victim of a gunshot wound to the back of the head, Joseph “Jay” Briseno Jr. came home from his 2003 tour of duty in Iraq to an entirely different life—one that requires extensive ongoing care.

To make necessary healthcare services more accessible to Jay, the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Washington, D.C. (DCVAMC) worked with Cisco TelePresence to tailor a telehealth solution specifically to Jay’s needs. Jay can communicate with his doctors through the telehealth device installed in his family home, 30 miles away from the hospital, and avoid the ambulance ride he would otherwise have to take every time he had an appointment.

Read More »

Tags: Cisco TelePresence, Joseph Jay Briseno, mobile telehealth, telehealth, telemedicine, TelePresence, Veterans Affairs Medical Center

As hospitals and health systems continuously adapt to the changing healthcare needs and practices of the 21st century, technology takes on an ever-expanding role. According to the Hospital Providers on the Move report, completed by SK&A healthcare marketing company, audio visual and media systems accounted for one of the fastest expanding employment areas between March 2010 and March 2011 at healthcare establishments across the country.

We’ve seen how audio and visual media, especially telepresence, have helped patients access difficult-to-reach doctors for illnesses ranging from Parkinson’s disease to psychiatric disorders. Perhaps the hiring increase for Directors of Audio Visual/Media Services indicates that even more hospitals have found technology like telepresence can enhance patient care. Read More »

Tags: telehealth, telemedicine, video conferencing, videoconferencing