Video collaboration permits students and educational institutions across the country to share specialty courses. Patient care increases because knowledge is more readily disseminated to all students, not just those who attend major schools or who can afford to travel to conferences.
Schools save money on teaching overhead, because one professor can teach two classes simultaneously via video collaboration. Teachers will also be able to fit more classes into their schedule, because travel time between campuses is essentially eliminated.
Polycom Video Collaboration will make it easier to provide continuing education courses remotely. The library of recorded lectures will make continuing education a flexible online course.
How This Innovation Helps the Entire Nation
Healthcare in the U.S. and much of the Western Hemisphere is concentrated in cities. Doctors locate their practices where they have the greatest number of possible patients. They are more likely to practice near major hospitals where they have admitting privileges, the pay rate for physicians is higher and there are more amenities. These factors mean that doctors are concentrated in metropolitan areas, while rural residents have a dearth of care. For many people in rural areas, getting help means driving several hours to a doctor or driving an hour to wait in an over-crowded clinic.
Medical schools are typically based in large cities. The ability to use video collaboration to teach classes may allow students to continue to attend smaller colleges instead of moving to large cities. This will reduce the loss of medical students from small, semi-rural colleges to the big cities.
Auburn University is going to use video collaboration as part of its clinical rotations. Rural patients will gain access to medical expertise without having to travel to the urban centers. Student rotations into rural areas simplify scheduling, because they can access a doctor’s opinion via the collaboration service instead of the school having to send a supervising medical professional in addition to the students.
The Long-term Impact
As Polycom Video Collaboration and similar technologies become more commonplace, healthcare costs will fall because first line medical personnel like physician assistants can check a patient’s vitals while a doctor anywhere in the world will be able to provide advice. Those who use a local physician can access a second opinion remotely. Rural students who complete their initial training near home can continue their advanced education without having to leave their families and patients. Bringing the doctor to the small screen means that everyone will have access to affordable healthcare when they need it, no matter where they live.
Edited by
Rachel Ramsey
