Digital Consultation
Second wave telemedicine applications involve less time-sensitive communications. Through asynchronous digital consultation, medical personnel can access and evaluate patient records electronically. Prior to technological advances allowing secure integration and interoperability of information, digital consultation was limited.
Today’s technology enables timely acquisition and integration of patient data into a centralized electronic medical records (EMR) database. There are software systems that automatically capture and organize high-resolution images and audio files that are able to read bar codes – simplifying data processing while meeting the secure HIPAA-compliant standards. Automatically embedded information, including measurement, notes, file name and time – down to the millisecond – adds vital patient information at significant time and cost savings. The wealth of patient information now available has greatly expanded the role and value of digital consultations. The ease with which information is captured, categorized, named and integrated into EMR aids in quality assurance and patient outcomes. Secure standardized files can be accessed and reviewed from any Internet-enabled computer, without additional software.
These and other software enhancements have greatly expedited medical research workflow. For example, captured images can be digitally stained, eliminating laborious hands-on processes. Motion detection automatically records, through time-lapse image capture, and measures growth in the laboratory setting – even at the cellular level. Combined with automated nomenclature and file integration, such tools have enabled recording and categorizing efforts in research to be accomplished in weeks as opposed to traditional methods that require months.
One example of this utility in life scienc is an ambitious project at Arizona State University Polytechnic campus. Dr. William Miller, Associate Professor of the Department of Applied Biological Sciences, uses GlobalMedia’s CapSure® technology, the first to integrate these functions, to catalog cell structures in plant life ingested by wild game that habitat areas impacted by wild fires throughout the southwest. Dr. Miller and his team report not only increased efficiencies, but improved resident proficiencies as well.
Another example is a hospital in Maine where images of both gross matter and microscopic images from cancer patients are recorded and classified for a weekly Tumor Review Board, a forum for evaluating future plans and challenges within their healthcare system. |
