Healthcare Technology Featured Article

May 07, 2013

Polycom's Video Solutions Help Healthcare Providers Improve Services


Healthcare providers around the country are constantly trying to find solutions to lower operational costs to make healthcare affordable for the average person. One way the healthcare industry is addressing this issue is by introducing cutting-edge technology to provide services that previously would have consumed valuable resources in hospitals, clinics and doctor's offices.

Video collaboration solutions can give doctors access to patients from remote locations so they can determine the severity of their patients’ conditions and make decisions based on the observations. According to federal government reports, the readmission cost of Medicare patients alone totals $26 billion annually – of which $17 billion is spent on return trips.

Polycom is helping improve medical care by supporting prevention and wellness initiatives with HD video collaboration. As a global leader in unified communications and collaboration, the company announced that it is forming an alliance with Anybots Inc. and Vivify Health Inc. to provide video collaboration platforms that will help reduce the unnecessary re-hospitalization of patients.

Currently, Polycom is in use by healthcare organizations around the world for the video solution it provides. Telestroke and teleneurology programs, surgery consultations, prevention and wellness initiatives are some of the services this technology helps healthcare professionals provide.

Using the Polycom RealPresence CloudAXIS Suite, service providers can use the secure and high quality enterprise-grade video collaboration tool to communicate with anyone with a browser and a web camera. This option gives doctors the ability to talk to their patients where ever they happen to be, as long as they have the technology. Performing a visual examination of the patient lets the doctor make the all-important decision of whether to admit the patient to the hospital or not.

“Today our healthcare system is challenged with an aging population, too few practitioners and adjusting to a major change in its approach to patient care. With collaborative video solutions you can address access, prevention and wellness, and continuation of care, all of which becomes important as we try to tackle the problem of unnecessary rehospitalizations,” said Dr. Deborah A. Jeffries, director of Global Healthcare Marketing, Polycom.

The mobile video collaboration application with Vivify Health care management platform and the Polycom RealPresence Mobile and Desktop software gives patients the ability to request video meetings with healthcare professionals. The platform also integrates Skype, Facebook and Google Talk contacts with a click to connect conveniently, and an enterprise-grade security that can be scaled from hundreds to thousands of video users.

This browser-based video collaboration is an invaluable tool for individuals in rural areas with limited specialized healthcare, low income communities and anyone who needs the expert opinion of healthcare professionals without incurring the astronomical cost of a hospital admission.




Edited by Alisen Downey
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