Telemedicine

What is Telemedicine?

• a combination of advances in medical technologies
• the use of computers
• the use of databases to store and retrieve information (Informatics)
• high-speed telecommunication facilities
• mainstream medical procedures

Telemedicine, more broadly defined, is the use of electronic information and communication technologies to provide and support health care delivery by connecting points of need to points of care.

Services available:

• quality audiovisual, telemedicine and distant learning services for its campus hospital and remote clinics
• pediatric specialty services for patients, physicians, and other healthcare professions using advanced computer applications and broadband telecommunications technologies

Driscoll Children's Hospital's ability to deliver clinical classes and coursework, Grand Rounds, Tumor Boards, and administrative meetings using a robust videoconferencing network continues to play an important role to support our mission and outreach to help improve access and quality of care to the children of South Texas. From our central hub in Corpus Christi, the Telemedicine Network spans a 33,000 square mile region throughout south Texas and portions of Mexico. Services have now expanded to include our international neighbors throughout Mexico and the Americas.

Telemedicine and Distance Education Locations

Our Technology

The Driscoll Children's Hospital Telemedicine network consists of a central hub and spoke design. The central hub consists of a Polycom MGC 50 Video Bridge capable of internal LAN IP based calling and external ISDN and public IP based calling. Locally connected to the central hub site, several Tandberg series videoconferencing endpoints used for distance learning / administration purposes and for Telemedicine consulting. Vitelnet workstations are tactically placed within several medical subspecialty offices throughout the hospital.

The network's private spoke design spans from Victoria, Texas in the North to Cuidad Victoria, Mexico in the South. The design consists mainly of a T-1 based IP architecture with DS-3 bandwidth to the Hospital's state of the art subspecialty clinics.

Types of Telemedicine Services Available:

• Evaluation and Consultation
• Pre and Post surgical care and follow-up
• Physician to Physician Consultation
• Cardiology Intrepretation
• Routine Scheduled Consultations
• Clinical Medical Education
• Chronic Disease Monitoring
• Clinical Support Services
• Patient Education