Telerounds create milestone for patient care
May 26, 2010 9:13 am | by Noel Banez, RN | Posted in News
Live video-conferencing between doctors and patients debuts at UP-PGH.
Surgeons led by Dr. Serafin Hilvano (left) lend their medical opinion from the GS III conference room while 5th year resident Dr. Regina De Dios (inset photo) reports patient's condition from Ward 2 during the first ever Telerounds last May 5, 2010.
The first ever telerounds came into a reality at the University of the Philippines – Philippine General Hospital (UP-PGH) last May 5, 2010.
“This is a first in our country,” heralded Dr. Serafin Hilvano, former chairman of the Department of Surgery and Chair of the Information Technology (IT) Council of UP Manila.
The Hepatobiliary Division (GS III) of the UP-PGH Department of Surgery, in collaboration with the UP Manila – National Telehealth Center (UPM-NThC), and Network Bridge Inc., spearheaded the telerounds conducted at Surgery Wards 2 and 4 of the 104-year old national tertiary referral center and teaching hospital of UP Manila. The telerounds, or the use of live-video conference between residents as they went through their rounds with their patients and consultants utilized the video conferencing infrastructures by Polycom-Asia Pacific, a unified communications provider.
The set-up of the live video conference was supervised by Engr. Danny Napalinga of Network Bridge, Engr. Randy Joseph Fernandez of NThC, and associates from Polycom-Asia Pacific. The telerounds facilities consisted of laptops, video cameras, microphones, and an LCD projector (conference room) to view in real-time as the resident physician reports the condition attributed to patients while consultants render their medical expertise.
Connection glitches were encountered when the resident physician transferred from one ward to another. Engrs. Napalinga and Fernandez said that this usually happens due to the physical hindrances that block signals from routers. They suggested that “repeaters” be placed so that access points will bear the same ID and IP addresses; and the use of a wireless local area network (WLAN) connection solely for telerounds to address the bandwidth problems that accompany the use of “repeaters”.
Recommendations were also aired regarding the use of a video camera that would have capabilities to zoom in to areas of a patient that need attention; and the use of headsets rather than hand-held microphones by resident physicians as they conduct their telerounds.
“We are looking forward to use this technology with our partners in remote areas,” disclosed Dr. Hilvano on the use of video conferencing to other physicians around the Philippines. “We would also like to watch our resident surgeons perform laparascopic and endoscopic procedures from our GS III office.”
