Medical technology

Gamma Knife

• Gamma Knife surgery is a minimally invasive alternative to conventional brain surgery. Considered the "gold standard" of radiosurgery technologies, this revolutionary surgical procedure allows safe and effective treatment for many types of intracranial tumors and vascular malformations. In fact, the Gamma Knife can often treat conditions once considered inoperable.

• Gamma Knife is safe – no incision.
• Precise – targets exact area.
• Cost Effective – covered by Medicare and most insurance companies
• Relative pain free
• Successful

• End of presentation for September 26th, 2007, 6th Period
• Questions?
• Discussion?

• TELEMEDICINE
• AND
• TELEHEALTH

• Telemedicine is the use of electronic communications and information technologies to provide services when participants are at different locations.

• Closely associated with telemedicine is the term telehealth.
• Telehealth is the umbrella term used to describe the ways service is delivered.

• Telehealth encompasses a broader application of technologies to:
• Distance education
• Consumer oureach
• Videoconferencing
• Remote monitoring of vital signs
• Continuing medical education
• Nursing calls

• Medical specialties more likely to be engaged in telehealth
• Radiology
• Dermatology
• Cardiology
• pathology

• Telemedicine does not represent a separate medical specialty.
• It extends the traditional practice of medicine.
• It encourages greater consumer involvement in decision making.

• Types of Services
• Specialist referral – involves a specialist assisting a general practitioner in rendering a diagnosis.
• Involves diagnostic images or video for viewing later.

• Types of Services
• Direct Patient Care – The sharing of audio, video and medical data between a patient and health professional for use in a diagnosis, treatment plan, prescription, or advice.
• Remote clinic…at home..physician’s office

• Types of Services
• Remote patient monitoring: uses devices to remotely collect and send data to a monitoring station for interpretation.
• Home health applications may include a specific vital sign such as blood pressure.

• Types of Services
• Medical education and mentoring

• Types of Services
• Consumer medical and health information

• Delivery Mechanisms
• Networked programs link tertiary care hospitals and clinics with outlying or remote centers. Estimated there are about 200 existing networks.
• Point-to-point connections

• Delivery Mechanisms
• Health provider to home connections – accomplished through phone line with interactive capabilities.
• Direct patient care – to monitor pacemaker and cardiac devices (example)

• Delivery Mechanisms
• Web-based e-health patient service sites such as “web MD.”

• Federal Funding for Telemedicine
• Grants and contracts: estimated about $270,000,000 with one third for research contracts with the U.S. Department of Defense.

• Federal Funding
• Direct Services: Major users…Department of Defense, Indian Health Service, and Bureau of Prisons in the Department of Justice.
• Medicare: 10% of population is covered by Medicare and use 25% of the medical services. Largest use in teleradiology.

• Advantages of Telemedicine
• Make speciality care more available to underserved rural and urban populations
• Alleviate cost and inconvenience of travel
• Opportunities for In-service education

• Barriers to Telemedicine
• States will not allow out-state-physicians to practice unless licensed in their state.
• Issue of reimbursement
• Fear of malpractice
• Inadequate technology

• Telehealth or Telemedicine?
• Telehealth is generally used as an umbrella term to describe the various ways to use technology to aid the health care professional
• Telemedicine describes the direct provision of clinical via telecommunications.
• But wait…as time advances, so will the advent of new things and new terms.

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