The on-going telemedicine and distance education program represents a model program for the electronic delivery of health care and education. This telemedicine program will meet the needs of rural health care providers by providing access to knowledge databases and library services as well as providing interactive video conferencing. The proposed system is designed to meet the following objectives: high-quality video, user-friendly interface, reliable connections, portability, low costs and low maintenance.

The primary goals of this initiative are intended to solve the technical challenges in deploying and developing networking technologies to empower health and medical care delivery. The goals are:

• to extend access to specialized, high-cost health care resources into rural areas of Nevada through telecommunications technology. This project will focus and help support the following three application areas:
  • remote diagnosis and consultation,
  • continuing medical education and
  • medical informatics
• in collaboration with Quest Nevada, develop a mobile clinic for cervical cancer
• to support UNLV's DOE-sponsored project on "Medical Records Knowledge Discovery and Information Management for Radiation Workers"
• to support the proposed UNLV Internet2 Quality-of-Service (QoS) project
• to support Lung Fluorescence Endoscopy Databank Initiative

The purpose of this initiative is to evaluate the technical requirements for public health applications and to establish the infrastructure to effectively deliver health and medical care through a technology based infrastructure.

Partners

• UNLV National Supercomputing Center
• University of Nevada School of Medicine, Department of Internal Medicine
• Quest Technology, Inc.
• University Medical Center, Departments of Internal Medicine and Oncology
• Endoscopy Pulmonary Disease Clinic, Heidelberg, Germany
• British Columbia Cancer Agency, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
• Sierra Pacific Communications

The capability of network technologies to support healthcare applications depends on whether the relevant technical needs are met and whether the operational aspects of the systems involved are understood and manageable. Ongoing efforts to enhance the capabilities of networking technology will produce many benefits for the healthcare community. The research community will provide enhanced QoS guarantees and improved security algorithms for healthcare information management. They will expand broadband access options for consumers, and protect consumer privacy.

The technologies planned for deployment across the Internet in the near future will not fully meet the needs of critical healthcare applications. In particular, QoS may not meet the need for dynamically variable service between communicating entities. Security technologies may not provide for the widespread issuance of certificates to healthcare consumers. And the new technology will not necessarily provide the degree of reliability needed for mission-critical health applications. Although much can be done with the technologies currently planned, additional effort will be needed to make network technology even more useful to the healthcare community. This initiative will review current efforts to improve the capabilities of network technology and will evaluate them on the basis of the needs of the healthcare sector.

Benefits

Telemedicine will certainly improve overall healthcare services for patients with limited access due to their geographic location in rural or certain urban areas, or due to restricted mobility as a result of disability or other physical restriction. The new technology will also level the playing field of socioeconomic status, which currently substantially determines patients' access to care. Indeed, telemedicine has the clear potential to overcome physical, geographic and economic barriers and to lead to improved healthcare.