FROM THE PRESIDENT

This issue of Texas Medical Center News is devoted to the art and science of telemedicine – a technology that allows health care professionals to use “connected” medical devices to evaluate, diagnose, and treat patients in remote locations. Physicians use computers with cameras and light sources that produce superior quality images to ensure accurate diagnoses of patients’ conditions. Whether connecting a physician at a hospital to another hospital in a faraway country, to a patient’s home, or to a community “satellite” clinic, telemedicine technology allows patient contact without seeing the patient “face to face.” This is enormously beneficial for patients who cannot physically visit the hospital, and allows physicians to make virtual “house calls” without leaving the office.

In addition, telemedicine devices can be used to link medical experts with each other, allowing them to share knowledge and consult on cases via computer or television screens. Capable of spanning the globe, telemedicine technology can facilitate exchanges of knowledge and help doctors in one location “guide” doctors in other parts of the world as they perform unfamiliar surgical procedures or attempt to diagnose conditions they have never witnessed.

Since the 1960s, Michael E. DeBakey, M.D., one of the world’s premier cardiologists, has proposed the use of telemedicine for worldwide clinical training. DeBakey, chancellor emeritus of Baylor College of Medicine and namesake of the Methodist DeBakey Heart Center, developed the DeBakey-Raytheon-ITS telemedicine system that uses satellites to link remote sites of the world to the Texas Medical Center for training and treatment. Today, technology developed by NASA has established an Internet link between Baylor College of Medicine and Moscow State University, expanding classroom capabilities at both institutions. Already, the digital connection between the two schools has been used for Grand Rounds presentations, seminars by Dr. DeBakey, and interactive consultations.

From cardiology to pathology, dentistry to dermatology, telemedicine is bridging geographical distances with the touch of a button, the flick of a switch.

E-Mail: tmcinfo@texmedctr.tmc.edu
URL: http://www.tmc.edu/tmcnews/09_01_02/page_end.html