Will your next telephone be a computer? The next step in communication

Physician practices are beginning to discover IP telephony, which puts phone calls and e-mail on one line.

By Robin Gareiss, AMNews correspondent. Jan. 27, 2003.

When the Cancer Therapy & Research Center decided to expand its 87,000-square-foot facility in San Antonio to 200,000 square feet last year, it saved $50,000 up front in an unexpected way: by changing its phone system.

Like a growing number of practices, the center switched from a traditional circuit-switched phone system to an emerging technology called IP telephony. Essentially, with the new technology, the phone acts similar to an e-mail screen. Push a button next to someone's name, and the phone automatically dials that person's extension.

With IP telephony, all voice phone calls and data transmissions (including access to the Internet or connections to internal applications) travel over a single network. That means running only one wire, rather than two or more, to every desk -- a $50,000 savings in CTRC's case.

It also means that voice and data traffic can be integrated, using IP phones with screens and keypads. At the most basic level, physicians can listen to e-mail over the phone. Or, rather than listening to 15 voice mail messages before retrieving a particularly important one, physicians can simply check the IP telephone screen to see a list of who has left voice mails. Then they can scroll down and click on the one they want to hear first.

IP telephony also keeps physicians better connected. Because a central controller manages all phones at any location, physicians can log into a phone at any facility to receive calls and check voice mail.