Health Authority’s groundbreaking stroke patient
diagnoses program is model for health providers; a simple and
effective method for ensuring collaborative medicine
CHICAGO – October 26, 2010 – IOCOM,
a leading software provider for video conferencing capabilities,
today announced that NHS East of England (a Strategic Health
Authority) won its 2010 E-Health Insider Award for best use of
telehealth and telecare in delivering 24/7 stroke thrombolysis by
using an IOCOM videoconferencing solution. IOCOM offers its
congratulations to the health organisation for its determination to
change the status quo in the diagnosis and treatment of stroke
patients through the use of technology.
Computer on Wheels
The East of England Stroke Networks – part of the United
Kingdom’s National Health Service (NHS) – asked the ICT
Strategy and Special Projects team of the Strategic Health
Authority to come up with a solution that would enable 24/7
treatment of stroke patients, particularly thrombolysis, and allow
the procedure to be administered to patients in a timely manner
regardless of location. The team developed a system that would
allow a patient at any participating hospital in the region to be
seen by a qualified stroke consultant working remotely from home or
another hospital location. This service proved to be highly
successful during a four month pilot and has saved lives and
greatly improved the quality of life of a number of other patients.
Some patients treated using the solution were able to walk out of
the hospital of their own accord, potentially negating severe
disability and the need for significant ongoing care. The savings
that resulted from avoiding the need for ongoing care of the
patients treated during the pilot paid for the solution’s
initial cost.
“We are honoured by the EHI award and IOCOM’s video
conferencing solution was the ideal product for enabling remote
diagnosis of ‘Stroke’ to become possible,” said
Anthony Whitaker, Manager of ICT Strategy and Special Projects for
the NHS East of England. “Working with St. Vincent’s
Healthcare Consulting and IOCOM, we deployed our own customized
packaged system that provides the diagnostic-quality radiology
images, visual and audio communication between the patient,
hospital staff and the remote consultant. With the fantastic
success of the pilot and the capability in place it is now just a
matter of delivering the system to the remainder of our 16
hospitals so that they became comfortable with the solution and see
the same benefits repeated across our region.”
Alan Lowe, COO of St. Vincent’s Healthcare Consulting,
added: “When we were asked to build a video communications
solution for East of England SHA, we had to turn to a technology
partner that was equally committed to delivering success. We chose
IOCOM because of its advanced technology, the ability to make it
work with minimal front-end effort and easy to deploy
infrastructure in an NHS setting. Given the performance of our
previous medical solutions using IOCOM in various specialities
there was only one product we recommend to ensure high quality,
reliable and an easy to use solution with a proven track record in
the NHS.”
The pilot project undertaken by The NHS East of England uses
IOCOM software with a computer on wheels, known as a
“COW,” which houses a fixed video camera and audio
link. Health providers use specially-equipped laptops that
automatically launch the IOCOM video conferencing technology as
well as enable them to securely read CT images without having to
directly access the hospitals’ systems.
IOCOM provides a software solution to health care organisations
that provides nearly unlimited multi-party capability and
diagnostic-quality images. Data images transmitted and displayed by
IOCOM are superior because they are transmitted in native
resolution containing subtle color distinctions necessary for
interpreting MRI and X-ray medical images.
“We are thrilled for the NHS East of England to be
recognised by E-Health Insider as a result of its work with stroke
patients,” said J. W. Penland, CEO of IOCOM. “We
believe that as more healthcare provider organisations understand
the benefits of using video conferencing to improve patient care
– and how truly easy it is to get started – they will
investigate all we have to offer.”
For a full case study about IOCOM’s work with the NHS East
of England, please click
here.
About NHS East of England
The NHS East of England is the local headquarters of the
NHS and works with 40 local NHS organizations across Bedfordshire,
Cambridgeshire, Essex, Hertfordshire, Norfolk and Suffolk. The NHS
East of England is responsible for ensuring that the £8.1
billion spent on health care in the region delivers the best
services and value-for-money for over 5.6 million people.
About IOCOM
IOCOM provides software to keep people connected through
video, data and audio conferencing. Its trusted solutions work with
virtually any Internet-enabled device, including room systems, PCs,
laptops and mobile devices. IOCOM’s focus is on delivering
the high performance necessary for smooth audio and video without
the cost and complexity of bulkier, proprietary systems. Fortune
500 companies, government and education institutions, researchers,
skilled workers, and general consumers currently rely on
IOCOM’s solutions. For more information, please visit http://www.iocom.com.
