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Friday, December 7, 2012

Arizona studies envision telemedicine on smartphones


By: Lorri Allen
Cronkite News Service
Originally published: Nov 21, 2012


Until now, telemedicine has largely involved capital-intensive studios and cameras isolated to one area of a hospital. But the Mayo Clinic and a University of Arizona center dedicated to telemedicine are pioneering work aimed at moving care to smartphones.

That means practicing medicine in remote and underserved communities will become cheaper, quicker and more effective, according to Dr. Bart Demaerschalk, a neurologist at Mayo Clinic Hospital.

"What we're attempting to do is to make it even easier for the clinical specialist to insert themselves in a virtual manner for the patient in the remote environment," he said. "A mobile device should fulfill that goal."

Dr. Ronald Weinstein, director of the Arizona Telemedicine Program, sees it as a natural progression.

"Telemedicine is rapidly evolving into being next-generation or even a generation beyond by going to mobile health or e-health, and the concept du jour is that the smartphone is the telemedicine workstation," he said.

That's happening at Benson Hospital, where health care workers use Skype on iPads to save time.

"It's very low-cost and it's to facilitate communication between our ER docs and admissions," said John Roberts, information technology director.

The entire story is here.