Telemedicine: A forum for learning for all involved

Technology is offering new ways for doctors here to work with physicians in other countries.

By Damon Adams, AMNews staff. May 20, 2002.

Medical Missions for Children is using technology to link American doctors with patients in medically underserved communities in other countries.

Through videoconferencing, the nonprofit New Jersey-based organization conducts interactive telemedicine consultations that allow volunteer U.S. doctors to help diagnose illnesses and to share new techniques with physicians on the other end.

The first session took place on Nov. 15, 2000, when St. Joseph's Children's Hospital in Paterson, N.J., was hooked up with Hospital Del Nino in Panama to evaluate two children. Medical Missions has done about 75 such consultations, officials said, and now does a few each month.

"It's almost like a live consult in an examination room," said Frank Brady, the Medical Mission's founder and board chair. "The overall objective is to be able to educate through interactive telemedicine." He said the organization is working to expand its efforts and build up a network of hospitals helping other hospitals.

At press time, Medical Missions was preparing to have Ira Parness, MD, a New York pediatric cardiologist, do a telemedicine consultation with a doctor and his patient, a 5-year-old girl in Panama. These events, Brady said, provide an opportunity for other physicians to observe and learn. [...]