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Skype for ‘redneck telehealth’?

Kudos to Barbara Duck of The Medical Quack blog for coining a new term: “redneck telehealth.”

A friend of hers had an outbreak of gout while getting ready to board an overseas flight. “He had called his doctor who was not set up with any of the new telehealth programs and software that is just now becoming available so I said ‘get your doctor on Skype and put your foot up there for him to see,’” Duck explained in a post over the weekend. “Obviously this is not a perfect situation for either side for a real diagnosis, but as the old saying goes a picture is worth a 1000 words and that’s what this would do.”

Actually, I’ve heard that because a picture is worth 1,000 words, a video is worth 1 million words. Since laptops tend to have built-in webcams these days and a lot of 3G smartphones can transmit live, mobile video (hey, even some 2.5G phones can do so over a Wi-Fi connection, like you might find in say, an airport), why not fire up Skype or FaceTime or similar videoconferencing program and show your foot to your doctor? If you don’t like the term “redneck,” just call it a video call or an ad-hoc network.

Or are we expecting far too much by assuming that the doctor would one, be available on short notice, and two, voluntarily share his/her mobile number or Skype screen name with a patient?

May 16, 2011 I Written By

I'm a freelance healthcare journalist, specializing in health IT, mobile health, healthcare quality fast $5000 loans-cash.net with bad credit, hospital/physician practice management and healthcare finance.

Commentary on media coverage of telemedicine

Let’s face it, the mainstream media mostly suck when it comes to covering health IT. (They suck even more for not realizing it and not giving me the time of day when I pitch a freelance story to them.)

I tried unsuccessfully to place an op-ed in the Los Angeles Times and USA Today about misunderstanding of what telemedicine and telehealth really mean. But one publication near and dear to the hearts of editors everywhere, Columbia Journalism Review, published my commentary today. Click here to read it. And pass it on to any editors you may know.

While you’re at it, let other journalists know about a piece I had published last year offering tips for journalists covering EHRs and related health IT topics. It’s over on the site of the Reporting on Health project at the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School for Communication.

January 6, 2011 I Written By

I'm a freelance healthcare journalist, specializing in health IT, mobile health, healthcare quality fast $5000 loans-cash.net with bad credit, hospital/physician practice management and healthcare finance.

Even more ‘Fierce’

As I mentioned earlier this month, I’m writing the new FierceMobileHealthcare, which premiered last week.

I’m particularly proud of this week’s Editor’s Corner, in which I expound on the Hospitals & Health Networks story I wrote about the videoconferencing and telemedicine technology in ambulances in Tucson, Ariz., and Baton Rouge, La. (I blogged about the same thing on Monday, but the Fierce piece adds many details.)

I still think the story belongs in the national, mainstream press. I guess I risk having a staff reporter steal the story, but I’m still the only reporter outside Arizona or Louisiana who’s seen the technology in action. I also have some insights about which other cities are considering systems of their own. Another Arizona municipality has approved a bond issue to build a similar network.

While I continue to shop that story, I’ve also been busy on a prototype issue for yet another FierceMarkets publication, called FierceEMR. If you go to that site now, you can register for a free subscription. I’m awaiting word on the launch date, but it seems like the e-newsletter will debut June 4 and be published on Thursdays.

In a comment on this very blog last week, FierceMarkets COO and Publisher Maurice Bakley explained the rationale behind launching new titles in a crowded marketplace.

Personally, I can think of about 19.2 billion reasons why new health IT publications are popping up and established ones are thriving even as the wider publishing industry tanks.

I’m leaving Friday morning for a wedding in Toronto and will be there through Monday, which is Victoria Day in Canada. Apparently, they do have the Internets (“das Internetz” in German) north of the border, so I’ll try to post while I’m up there, but I’m not going to make any promises.

May 13, 2009 I Written By

I'm a freelance healthcare journalist, specializing in health IT, mobile health, healthcare quality fast $5000 loans-cash.net with bad credit, hospital/physician practice management and healthcare finance.

Live video from ambulance to ED

Attention editors of technology and general-interest publications: Hospitals & Health Networks this month has a short InBox item I wrote about live video links from ambulances to emergency departments and trauma centers. Emergency medical services in Tucson, Ariz., and, more recently, Baton Rouge, La., make use of municipal Wi-Fi networks to triage and diagnose trauma cases before patients even arrive.

This is a story I’ve known about for more than a year and a half and only recently, when Baton Rouge turned the first piece of what soon will be a parish-wide system, did any editor, HHN Senior Editor Matthew Weinstock, show interest in this story. All he had the room or budget for was this 450-word InBox item, though.

If you believe the telemedicine experts I interviewed, this kind of technology may become the norm in urban and suburban areas within a few years, and that, IMHO, makes it worth a much longer feature story in a publication that reaches beyond healthcare. There was some MSM coverage of the Baton Rouge launch, but nothing that examined the big picture.

I toured an ambulance and got a live demonstration of the technology when I was in Tucson in February, and have leads on other municipalities that are considering such a system, plus some cities that are using different technologies to achieve the same results. I’ve got photos, too.

Editors, I await your call.

May 11, 2009 I Written By

I'm a freelance healthcare journalist, specializing in health IT, mobile health, healthcare quality fast $5000 loans-cash.net with bad credit, hospital/physician practice management and healthcare finance.

More from Bellagio

Here’s one more story I wrote as a result of the Making the eHealth Connection conferences in Bellagio nearly a month ago. It’s about RAFT, the Réseau en Afrique francophone pour la télémédicine (Telemedicine Network in French-speaking Africa), which connects remote and underserved African communities in 15 countries to medical professionals worldwide. RAFT is a program of the Geneva University Hospitals and the cantonal government of Geneva, Switzerland.

The story appeared in E-Health Europe on Aug. 4, while I was still in Italy.

August 27, 2008 I Written By

I'm a freelance healthcare journalist, specializing in health IT, mobile health, healthcare quality fast $5000 loans-cash.net with bad credit, hospital/physician practice management and healthcare finance.

Telemedicine on ‘House’

Like most TV medical dramas, paper charts, handwritten prescriptions (usually for Vicodin) and lots of trial-and-error have been hallmarks of “House MD” since Day 1. Sure, there’s always a lot of advanced diagnostic equipment, but this week I finally find myself compelled to blog about one particular episode of one of my favorite shows.

A special episode airing Sunday night right after the Super Bowl (approximately 10 pm EST) features what looks to be some really cool, high-definition telemedicine. Specifically, House has to treat a researcher at the South Pole, played by Mira Sorvino. Go here and click “Watch Video” for three clips.

Now if only someone could convince Dr. House to try clinical decision support. Then again, the show wouldn’t be nearly as entertaining.

January 31, 2008 I Written By

I'm a freelance healthcare journalist, specializing in health IT, mobile health, healthcare quality fast $5000 loans-cash.net with bad credit, hospital/physician practice management and healthcare finance.