The Christ Hospital and VISICU Sign Agreement to Implement eICU Program

The Christ Hospital in Cincinnati, Ohio, has entered into an agreement with VISICU, Inc., to implement their patented eICU Program. Using early-warning software and remote monitoring tools, eICU technology enables off-site critical care physicians and nurses to monitor critically ill patients around the clock. The voice, video and data technology has been proven to reduce unnecessary complications, improve mortality rates and shorten hospital length of stay.

A total of 48 Christ Hospital ICU beds will be monitored with the eICU technology when it is implemented in the fall of 2008 at a cost of $3.4 million. Following this implementation, The Christ Hospital hopes to expand the program to surrounding communities, to provide enhanced critical care coverage for ICU patients in other hospitals. Through the eICU Program, such patients will have access to around-the-clock, advanced critical care expertise located in The Christ Hospital-based eICU Center, without having to leave their local hospital.

In the US, there is a shortage of intensivist physicians, or those trained in caring for critically ill patients. According to industry studies, involvement by intensivist physicians in the care of ICU patients helps prevent complications. With the eICU technology, off-site intensivists are immediately available to intervene in emergencies when a patient’s attending physician is not in the ICU. The off-site intensivists and critical care nurses collaborate with the on-site staff to closely and carefully coordinate each patient’s care.

The Moroccan Children’s Telemedicine Network will connect Children’s National Medical Center via satellite with the medical institutions of the Hôpital d'Enfants de Rabat (IBN SINA); the Institut National D’Administration Sanitaire (INAS) - Royaume du Maroc Ministère de la Santé and the Faculté de Médecine et de Pharmacie de Marrakech.

“We needed a secure, reliable network that could be easily managed despite the diversity of locations. Given our previous affiliation with Intelsat, we turned to a satellite-based solution,” said Craig Sable, MD, medical director of Telemedicine, Children’s National. “Now we have a cutting-edge education platform that doctors in the United States and Morocco will use to discuss patient cases, provide clinical consultations, lead distance learning training sessions and provide access for emergency communications. We are pleased to be working with Intelsat and iDirect on this important project.”

“The Moroccan Children’s Telemedicine Network establishes an important lifeline for doctors in Africa to advance medical treatment and education with the help of healthcare professionals here in the US,” said Dean Griffler, iDirect’s Senior vice president of Global Sales. “Satellite communications is a perfect solution to improve the reach of medical treatment globally, and iDirect is proud to contribute its satellite technology to this bold initiative.”

Virtual Heroes, Inc. (VHI) has created 3DiTeams, an interactive healthcare team trainer designed to maximize team synchronization and skills proficiency to help reduce medical errors. The program, designed in collaboration with faculty from Duke University Medical Center, was developed with funding from the US Army's Telemedicine and Advanced Technology Research Center, and is based on a health care team coordination curriculum called TeamSTEPPS, developed by the US Department of Defense and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. The goal of 3DiTeams is to emphasize learning-by-doing and provide training-to-proficiency in rare, complicated or otherwise error-prone tasks.

Virtual Heroes’ Advanced Learning Technology platform provides a comprehensive after-action-review technology, photo-realistic art and effects and was incorporated into the training program that allows distributed users to participate simultaneously from different computers across the Internet. The instructor can control and drive the virtual patient’s vital signs dynamically during each scenario to further challenge students.

“Effective team coordination is critical for the safe delivery of healthcare. Development of these skills requires training and practice in an interactive team-based environment,” said Jeffrey Taekman, MD director of Human Simulation and Patient Safety at Duke Medical Center. “Virtual Heroes worked with us to create a high-fidelity, multi-user, real-world, hospital simulation in a video game setting that is based on real science.”

“With the pilot product, our nurses have seen substantial improvements in productivity and clinical documentation accuracy,” said Michael Blum, chief medical information officer, UCSF. “The solution has enhanced patient interaction, reduced documentation delays and required clinician logins and offered greater portability.”

The solution replaces the use of Computer on Wheels (COWs) to access Centricity Enterprise EMR and is made possible by the creation of a new cable system and Java applet that allows vital sign collection on GE DINAMAP monitors to flow directly into Centricity Enterprise. GE engineers also designed a new user interface optimized for navigation and data input using the Motion C5 pen and stylus capabilities.

Using Mobile Computing’s formal clinician usability study methodology, UCSF piloted the mobile, clinician-centric workflow to fully utilize the potential of Centricity Enterprise EMR to improve patient care.

Medical Alert Company VRI Develops a Solution to VOIP Phone Services

Traditional medical alert units, often worn by seniors around their neck or wrist to call for help in case of a fall or other adverse event, were designed to communicate by way of POTS (plain old telephone service). After placing a telephone call, the emergency unit sends information from the home to the monitoring center to determine which emergency unit is calling and what type of help is needed. When consumers switch to digital phone service, the data can be distorted or omitted as the bandwidth of the Internet service provider fluctuates, resulting in missed or inaccurate emergency reporting at the monitoring center.

In recent months, a growing number of seniors have switched from traditional phone service to bundled packages in order to save money on the service. However, the switch may come at a much higher price if emergency help is not available when someone needs it most.

“The biggest problem is that consumers are switching to VOIP service, and without knowing it, they have significantly reduced the reliability of a device designed to help them remain safe and independent,” says Andy Schoonover, president of Valued Relationships, Inc. (VRI), a medical alert provider. “Many medical alert providers have no way of knowing the change has occurred until something goes awry.”

VRI has recently announced a new solution for medical alert units used with VOIP. In response to the growing number of seniors switching to VOIP service, VRI has introduced DigiCare. DigiCare is a VOIP compatible PERS unit that leverages proprietary hardware and software changes in the company’s CSAA 5 Diamond Certified Medical Alert Monitoring Center to receive both emergency and maintenance calls from medical alert units without the risk of interference or data loss from VOIP bandwidth issues.

Healthcare providers are saving critical time and enhancing productivity to better serve their patients in an increasingly demanding environment with healthcare solutions built on unified communications technology and network managed services from Nortel. “When the network becomes a medical instrument, it needs to perform like one,” said Charles Salameh, vice president, Network Business Solutions, Nortel. “That’s one thing our healthcare customers don’t have to worry about. We’ve tailored our healthcare solutions and managed services to make sure their networks stay secure, reliable and efficient. When Nortel takes care of the network, healthcare providers can remain focused on what they do best, provide excellent patient care.”

The latest additions to Nortel’s Healthcare Solutions portfolio include IP Mobility Fast Start, Secure Portable Office, Network Managed Services and Consulting Services.

Nortel Healthcare Solutions are designed specifically to bring the benefits of Business Made Simple to medical facilities. The typical hospital, for example, currently has separate voice, data and wireless networks. Management of multiple networks presents a complex and time-consuming challenge that can mean less reliable services and a negative impact on patient care.

Nortel Network Managed Services can help healthcare providers with tailored solutions that extend from the back office to the point of patient care, providing the skilled resources and operational experience to free them from the burdens of network surveillance, management and upkeep. Nortel Consulting Services can assist with strategy, planning and implementation of other solutions, such as transitioning to one simpler, less costly network.

Real-time collaboration and access to patient status, clinical applications and medical records from mobile devices is another way healthcare facilities can empower physicians and other professionals to deliver higher-quality patient care, but the initial costs can be beyond the reach of small-and medium-sized hospitals. Nortel IP Mobility Fast Start solves this problem and provides greater return on investment with a manageable and affordable migration path to IP that enables mobility and unified communications as well as future technologies.

SoftLight Development has unveiled its new Web-based teleradiology study management service, called Telerad. Telerad enables teleradiologists to access their studies over the Web from any computer, while maintaining HIPAA compliance, and keeps both stationary images and animations in an FDA-compliant Dicom format, so accurate measurements can be taken as though the doctor were actually in the office with the patient.

Telerad supports all radiology modality types including MRI, CT, sonogram, PET scan and others, and supports cine features in multiple modalities. Like the majority of SoftLight’s products, it is downloadable, installing in a day or less, and is paid for on a transactional basis, clinics and teleradiologists can download Telerad for free and pay a small fee each time information is transferred from the clinic to the teleradiologist or vice versa.

“We have found the transactional model extremely helpful for our clients, who might be smaller clinics that can’t afford expensive software up front, or for clinics who might have a radiologist on staff but want to keep this teleradiology capability on hand at no cost in case their radiologist is unable to come in,” said Don Thomas, CEO of SoftLight Development.

Telerad is able to alert on-call doctors via text message, page, or e-mail when a high-priority study comes in that needs immediate attention. Because the program is Web-based, the doctor can then check the study from his portable computer, whether he is with a patient of his own or in the middle of free time on the golf course, as accurately as if he were in the room with the patient. He can then submit his diagnosis or recommendations via Telerad and continue what he was doing.

5th Annual World Health Care Congress
April 21-23
Washington, DC

The 5th Annual World Health Care Congress is the most prestigious meeting of chief and senior executives from all sectors of health care. The 2008 conference will convene over 2,000 CEOs, senior executives and government officials from the nation's largest employers, hospitals, health systems, health plans, pharmaceutical and biotech companies, and leading government agencies.

www.worldcongress.com