Cisco Systems is bringing together its TelePresence video collaboration
technology and unified communications products to create a platform to enable
better patient care in virtual settings.
Cisco announced its HealthPresence platform March 1 at the
HIMSS (Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society) event in Atlanta.
The platform is designed to enable greater doctor-patient
interaction when face-to-face meetings aren't possible. In some cases, these
immersive video collaboration sessions can be preferable to face-to-face
meetings, as when it is necessary to bring in specialists from varying
locations to consult on a case, according to Cisco officials.
It also is intended to aid patients in rural and underserved
areas where medical attention or particular expertise is scarce.
"Health systems globally are challenged to meet increasing
demand for quality services," Kaveh Safavi, vice president and global lead
of Cisco Internet Business Solutions Group Healthcare Practice, said in a
statement. "Patients often have limited access to health care,
particularly when they require specialty services or need care for chronic
illness, in both urban and rural settings."
The Cisco HealthPresence platform gives physicians and patients
a way to "meet" in a secure environment so patients can "receive
some of the best care possible regardless of location," Safavi said.
This is the latest effort by Cisco to use its collaboration and
communications products to expand the reach of health care experts.
For example, Cisco and UnitedHealth Group announced that they
were collaborating to create a
network that would enable doctors to meet with patients virtually. The
Connected Care telehealth network was designed to bring the same level of care
to these virtual visits that the patient would receive by seeing the doctor in
person.
Cisco's HealthPresence program, which began trials in 2008, is an
effort to take the idea of giving patients physical access to health care a
step further by addressing such areas as collaboration with multiple doctors
and experts, and increasing the patient's ability to share and view
information.
Cisco plans to launch the program in March. The platform
supplies health care providers with Cisco Vitals Software and other tools, physiological
data and streaming high-definition video feeds, TelePresence units in clinical
and patient locations, and integrated voice, video and data technologies that
can take patient data and send it to multiple physicians, or just between a
doctor and physician, before, during and after the session.
Cisco's software encrypts the data to ensure privacy.
The vendor also will supply medical devices at the patient's
end, including a general camera for external observation, an ear-nose-throat
camera, a digital stethoscope and a device for taking vital signs such as blood
pressure, temperature, pulse rate and blood oxygen levels.
Cisco cited several successful pilot programs in California,
including Cisco's corporate headquarters in San Jose;
Aberdeen, Scotland;
France; England;
South Africa;
and China.
VoIP Solutions, IP Telephony and Unified Communications News & Reviews 
