RigNet and NuPhysicia Partner to Provide High Tech Health Solutions to Oil and Gas Industry
RigNet, Inc., a global provider of managed communications solutions for the upstream oil and gas industry and the telemedicine veterans of NuPhysicia LLC, have recently announced their partnership. The companies are launching RigNet Medical, a service developed to enhance the overall health of those whose work takes them offshore or to remote locations.
"Access to quality health care is unquestionably a global concern," said Lars P. Eliassen, vice president of global sales & marketing for RigNet. "Imagine the additional complications for those whose job may be on a rig, miles out to sea or in a desolate field across another continent; an issue our customers must face."
Keeping in step with its mission to deliver the the highest level of performance, technical support and customer service, the partnership between RigNet and NuPhysicia went beyond sheer logic. "Ours is a highly competitive industry that demands cutting-edge solutions," said Eliassen. "In this case, the answer was telemedicine, NuPhysicia and the addition of RigNet Medical to our array of services."
The distance-medicine service, RigNet Medical, gives the oil and gas industry the opportunity to better control health-care costs, reduce unnecessary transits off the jobsite, expand uptime, reduce medical-care risk and enhance offshore medical services. These are all key factors to maintaining a competitive edge for any company in today's market.
With RigNet Medical, employees will benefit from access to medical expertise, employee health and disease management programs for such chronic-care illnesses as diabetes and high blood pressure, no matter where the employee is located.
"Telemedicine uses the latest in technological advances to create a direct line of access to high quality health care," said Dr. Glenn Hammack, president and CEO of NuPhysicia. "Such access markedly improves the overall health of employees, boosts recruiting efforts and increases employee retention, a win, win solution for everyone."
RigNet Medical utilizes a portable telemedicine system that holds all the necessary equipment to conduct real-time, fully diagnostic telemedicine including a videoconferencing system, diagnostic clarity using digital stethoscopes and connectivity for electronic medical record technology. All of these features are packed into a Zero Halliburton suitcase that stows easily, or can be quickly set up in the rig infirmary or other location. For added convenience, the system size also conforms to airline carry-on luggage requirements.
Users of the RigNet Medical service will be fully trained in the use of the telemedicine system. Connections to physicians at NuPhysicia will be scheduled as sick- and well-call clinics. For urgent situations, physicians will be available 24/7 to assist in decision-making where transport may be necessary.
Addressing the communications challenges faced by oil and gas companies today in remote locations, RigNet uses the leading satellite and networking technologies to provide high-quality solutions for broadband data, voice and video communications. RigNet installs, manages and supports communication systems without requiring its customers to invest in and manage expensive telecommunications equipment, allowing them to redirect valuable resources to their core businesses.
Doctors Volunteering Time Impact Thousands of Children Worldwide Using Polycom Video for Remote Diagnostics and Telemedicine
Medical Missions for Children (MMC), a non-profit organization dedicated to serving the medical needs of catastrophically ill children in underserved areas of the US and the world, and Polycom, Inc., a provider of unified collaborative solutions, recently celebrated the eight year anniversary of their successful partnership, which enables volunteer physician specialists in the US and Europe to help sick children around the world using donated Polycom video collaboration solutions. To support this effort, Polycom has donated products and funds, including a recent installment of Polycom high definition HDX video solutions, allowing MMC to implement the Telemedicine Outreach Program of its Global Telemedicine and Teaching Network in more than 100 countries.
By working with Polycom to establish its telemedicine network, which incorporates a variety of Polycom video, and bridging solutions, MMC has been able to install video rooms in 27 top US and European mentoring hospitals including Mount Sinai, St. Jude's and Johns Hopkins, which are used by more than 650 physicians. To date, the network has connected physicians with more than 26,000 children throughout the developing world.
"The partnership and support we receive from Polycom is one of the most important and effective relationships we've had with any organization," said Frank Brady, founder of Medical Missions for Children. "Polycom realized the significance and importance of quality in telemedicine technology and has been instrumental in helping us achieve our mission."
In its most recent Polycom collaboration, MMC created the first high-speed, HD video collaboration network between two hospitals, building a network of Polycom HDX 9004 video endpoints to connect St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital in Memphis with St. Joseph's Children's Hospital in Paterson, N.J., to develop and share innovative pediatric cancer research. Through this network, St. Jude's has agreed to share its cancer treatment protocols with St. Joseph's and allow its doctors to diagnose and treat cancer patients remotely using the industry's best HD video collaboration solutions from Polycom. The quality and clarity of communication enables physicians to remotely diagnose and treat patients accurately as if children and doctors, regardless of location, were in the same room.
Incorporating HD video collaboration into its Telemedicine Network allows MMC to introduce a new level of diagnostic clarity to its patients and physicians. More significantly, Polycom HDX video collaboration endpoints are the only solutions that allow simultaneous transfer of HD multimedia content, enabling high resolution documents such as CAT scans and X-rays to be shared between sites without loss of video quality or detail; further expanding the available resources being used to effectively diagnose children around the world.
US Army Selects Cogon Systems to Develop Advanced Clinical Decision Support Tools for Hand Held Computers
Cogon Systems, Inc. has been awarded a Research, Development, Test and Evaluation contract by the US Army's Telemedicine & Advanced Technology Research Center (TATRC) to develop advanced clinical decision support tools for hand held computer use.
The primary goal of the project is to determine if using mobile technology in an inpatient setting to deliver clinical decision support through rapid retrieval of clinical data, intelligently filtered clinical knowledge and appropriately generated alerts and reminders, will positively impact patient care while concurrently achieving physician's acceptance, efficiency and education. The project will rely upon technology provided by Cogon Systems Mobile MOMENT OF CARE software application. Cogon's product leverages data already residing within a hospital's inpatient information system thus preserving existing infrastructure investments and will serve as the foundation to which advanced clinical decision support modules will be appended. The project's overarching objective is applicable to all Medical Treatment Facility or Combat Support Hospitals.
The project's beta site will be DeWitt Army Community Hospital located at Fort Belvoir, Va. and the contract period runs through July, 2008. DeWitt's Family Practice Residency is the second oldest family practice residency in the Army and it is planned that a number of residents in training will participate in the demonstration phase.
TATRC is a subordinate element of the United States Army Research and Materiel Command (USAMRMC) and is charged with managing core Research Development Test and Evaluation (RDT&E) and congressionally mandated projects in telemedicine and advanced medical technologies.
Continua Health Alliance Takes Next Step in Offering Connectivity
The Continua Health Alliance, a group of technology, medical device and health and fitness industry leaders, has unveiled the key components of its first set of technical guidelines to help establish a market of connected personal health and fitness products and services, making it possible for patients, caregivers and health care providers to more proactively address ongoing healthcare needs.
The first set of guidelines, due out early 2008, are based on proven connectivity standards and will help to increase assurance of interoperability between devices, enabling consumers to share information with care givers and service providers more easily. Manufacturers of products that meet these guidelines will be permitted to use the Continua Health Alliance certification logo to promote their products. The logo will clearly identify certified products, making it easy for purchasers to choose products that work together seamlessly.
“Continua is committed to empowering consumers and patients world wide, to take an active role in their own care through the use of technology,” said Dave Whitlinger, chairman of the Continua Health Alliance. “Today, more than one billion people worldwide are overweight, and more than 600 million have chronic diseases. Continua’s membership will utilize the Version One Guidelines to create connected health devices and services that provide individuals the tools they need to proactively manage their health.”
In addition to outlining the new elements of the guidelines, the Continua Health Alliance also announced it is working with Abt Associates, Inc. on a unique research project targeting reimbursement policy. Abt Associates will assist in cataloging, synthesizing and assessing all telehealth studies and the peer-reviewed cost-effectiveness literature. This work will help Continua determine strategies for initiating increasing telehealth cost effectiveness, initiating quality improvement studies and for securing reimbursement for telehealth products and services.
In its first year, Continua has grown from 22 to 133 member companies, with its efforts focused on a continuum of life and care methods, particularly chronic disease management, maintaining healthy independence for the aging, and proactive health and fitness. This announcement is a benchmark in the one-year-old Alliance’s progress toward creating an ecosystem of personal telehealth solutions. Interoperability allows patients to use the best devices for their individual needs and provides immediate access to health information. These standards recognize devices that can work together and communicate in each of these three fields, helping maximize positive health outcomes.
The Continua Version One standards represent a marriage of well developed healthcare informatics data standards with proven consumer electronic technologies. This integration provides the specifications necessary to enable connectivity across a wide variety of personal telehealth devices and services. The Version One standards include the Bluetooth Medical Device Profile Specification (Bluetooth SIG), USB Personal Health Device Specification (USB Forum), ISO/IEEE 11073 Personal Health Device Specifications (IEEE), and Health Level 7 for integration with standards-based electronic health records (EHR). The comprehensive set of guidelines will help improve the quality of care by empowering consumers and their healthcare providers to more simply share information through common communication channels such as telephones, cell phones, PCs, TV set top boxes, as well as other dedicated health devices. |
Oridion Launches its Fully Integrated Remote Monitoring System and SARA Software for Improved Patient Safety
Oridion Systems Ltd. has recently launched its total solution Microstream Monitoring System (MSM), powered by the Bernoulli Enterprise system. The MSM system, a wireless technology for continuous central station monitoring, is a fully integrated ventilation and oxygenation remote patient monitoring system that directly responded to the Anesthesia Patient Safety Foundation (APSF) recommendation for improved Anesthesia Patient Safety Foundation (APSF) recommendation for improved ventilation and oxygenation monitoring for patients receiving patient controlled analgesia.
Included in the 2006 APSF recommendations was the endorsement of remote access to alarms, especially on the general floor environment where higher patient-to-nurse ratios often do not allow on-going visual contact with the patient as in other areas, such as the intensive care units and emergency room. The MSM system helps improve patient safety because it instantaneously alerts clinicians via wireless technology that a patient is in respiratory distress.
With the MSM system, clinicians have the benefit of closely monitoring not just oxygenation status (oxygen carried in the blood), but also the essential ventilation parameter - end-tidal carbon dioxide. Clinical studies have demonstrated conclusively that carbon dioxide monitoring is the earliest indication of a change in a patient's ventilation.
The MSM powered by Bernoulli is the only central monitoring system that supports the full range of Oridion capnography monitoring products, including the Capnostream 20 and the patented Microstream FilterLine sets for CO2 sampling.
Gerry Feldman, president of Oridion Capnography, Inc. said, "With this system we have been able to deliver information about respiration and ventilation that has never been experienced before. Its clinical impact is seen on the faces of our customers who are able to report they can intervene earlier and more accurately in crisis situations. This system, including the new recently FDA approved SARA software (Smart Alarm Respiratory Analysis) that safely reduces alarms by 55 percent, is the first responder to the recommendations of the APSF."
McKesson Announces the Release of Horizon Homecare Wound Advisor
McKesson has released the Horizon Homecare Wound Advisor, an integrated disease management solution for centralized and in-home care that extends the reach of wound specialists, helping lead to higher-quality homecare at less cost. Using the solution, organizations can identify patients who need evaluation based on their current wound status (decline, new referral or existing referral) and provide ‘one-click’ access to the patients’ histories, assessment findings and digital wound images from a central location. This allows Wound Ostomy Continence (WOC) or specialty clinicians to provide their expertise and experience to the care of a large wound population.
“Wound care is one of the most expensive services homecare organizations provide, and nearly half of a typical population has one or more wounds,” said Karen Utterback RN, MSN, vice president of product management for McKesson Provider Technologies’ homecare and hospice group. “Wound heal rates improve by as much as 50 percent when a WOCN or wound specialist is involved in the patient’s care. Combine this with the shortage of clinicians and the expense of retaining WOC and other wound specialty clinicians, and it becomes obvious that expanding their reach has the potential to dramatically impact patient outcomes and the agency’s bottom line.”
In addition to centralized care, Horizon Homecare Wound Advisor assists clinicians at the point of care with a standardized, comprehensive wound assessment, wound image(s) and pertinent patient information including education, supply use and treatment protocols. Assessment responses trigger the system to assign evidence-based wound protocols, and the necessary physician orders to support the care process. The solution provides visual cuing to the clinician for patients in decline based on negative changes in the wound assessment findings.
“Horizon Homecare Wound Advisor is going to allow our company to take a giant leap forward in our ability to manage our wound care population,” said Grace Flynt, regional manager for Deaconess HomeCare in Hattiesburg, Miss. “We will have a way to apply the nursing process to every wound patient quickly and efficiently, allowing us to heal wounds faster, manage the cost and improve our early-intervention efforts.”
Honeywell HomMed Launches New Telehealth Ecosystem
Honeywell has introduced its Telehealth Ecosystem, a comprehensive telehealth solution designed to optimize patient and financial outcomes by providing a platform for improving the standardization and quality of care. The ecosystem is built upon three pillars: patient facing devices, content and software, and services. To support its introduction, Honeywell is releasing the LifeStream Platform and Genesis DM telehealth device.
The LifeStream Platform is an open architecture, content management platform that enables seamless access to patient health data, and enhances clinician workflow and the standardization of care delivery through the integration of evidence-based clinical applications. It has user friendly, clinician dashboards, as well as enhanced security and business continuance features such as application failover, which enables instantaneous and seamless reconnection to the virtual database as needed. In addition, the platform's Web-extreme technology allows secure access to clinical applications anywhere.
“The LifeStream Platform is our technology springboard as it allows any healthcare provider information portability, which in turn enhances productivity, and drives care delivery efficiencies and standards," said Terry Duesterhoeft, vice president of marketing and product development for Honeywell HomMed. “Our Genesis Classic telemonitor was already the market leader; now, with our fourth generation Genesis DM, we are connecting it to our LifeStream content engine and enhancing the usability, security and connectivity for patients, their families, and clinicians."
The Genesis DM telehealth monitor is Web-based, content rich, and contains the most comprehensive and easy-to-use remote biometric and symptom evaluation. The new DM has also been improved with new screen displays, auditory features, an automatic set-up wizard and wireless communication capabilities that will set the standard for plug and play device. Our enhanced LifeStream disease specific symptom management content provides on-demand access to symptom-specific assessment and patient information by diagnosis or disease state on managing hypertension, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), congestive heart failure (CHF) and diabetes. |
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