The use of videoconferencing to conduct a remote consultation with a patient is not new conceptually. It has been tried many times over the years with little success and virtually no uptake. Patients and doctors alike would shy away from it and usually for very good reason.
Polycom HD medical conferencing allowing remote consultation of a patient
What is different today is the quality that enables both clinicians and patients to see and hear each other clearly without long gaps in the conversation and lips moving out of synchronisation with the voice, both elements in old technology that made natural conversation very difficult and awkward. This was particularly apparent where subtleties in speech and behaviour needed to be observed. Today, not only are the high definition images of the people and their voices reliable and clear, clinicians have the facility to quickly view other details such as patient history, scanned images from PACS or a pc, so the ability to quickly assess a patient for treatment becomes a reality.
Just as information and communication technology has become integral to our social lives, it also offers great potential in a health care context and an increasing number of patients and health and social care organisations are reaping the benefits from both a financial and patient care perspective.
Today, it is second nature to more and more people of all ages to use mobile methods of communication. People attending a surgery, clinic or hospital as patients become very comfortable and accepting of the technology within minutes of using it for the first time. Clinicians are recognising the benefits to patients, themselves and their Trusts that are achieved by the use of remote consultations.
There are many applications for remote clinical consultations ranging from the management of acute conditions such as stroke, cardiac, neurology and burns to consultation between a hospital based specialist and a GP Surgery for regular dermatological patient reviews.
MultiSense Communications has the capability to design a bespoke solution to meet the requirement, ranging from mobile units that can be moved around the ward to laptop applications for use inside and outside the hospital environment, fixed systems in an A&E bay to multi-screen and multi-camera units in a consulting room.