The Nebraska Medical Center is demonstrating the usefulness of video communications in healthcare by incorporating a telemedicine platform called Vidyo into the treatment of Ebola patient Dr. Richard Sacra. Dr. Sacra is currently in isolation at the Biocontainment Patient Care Unit at the facility, one of only four of its type in the entire country.
Vidyo’s video conferencing platform provides a channel for Dr. Sacra to interact with the outside world. He is able to communicate with his wife for support and logistics as well as with physicians and nurses, affording him the most social interaction possible without risking a spread of the infection or jeopardizing any part of his treatment. Conferencing is reliable and secure, providing a level of safety that has not been achieved by previous platforms, and medical matters can be discussed among the patient and staff without the need for a face-to-face meeting.
“The Nebraska Medical Center is a highly innovative, state-of-the-art healthcare institution, that requires superior, dependable technology,” said Vidyo CEO Ofer Shapiro. “Vidyo enables physician-to-physician collaboration, physician-to-patient consultation and patient-to-family connections, providing peace of mind and comfort when in person visits are not possible. Our platform allows physicians to communicate with patients wherever they are: hospitals, nursing homes, remote clinics, home environments and now in Biocontainment units.”
The Nebraska Medical Center adopted the Vidyo platform in 2011, as one of many facilities that recognized the huge benefits of a comprehensive solution. In fact, more than 30 percent of the top 100 integrated delivery networks have selected Vidyo. An extensive suite of APIs and HIPAA-compliant encryption have qualified the platform for a variety of applications, including electronic medical records systems, ICU monitoring software, telemetry management software and direct-to-consumer care providers. Installation is simple, as Vidyo can integrate with existing video conferencing infrastructure and operate over an Internet connection or wireless network.
Vidyo is being adopted in many medical centers around the country, and new applications for it are discovered all the time. A major development is the ability to develop centralized monitoring facilities so fewer people can monitor more patients at a time. This is especially useful during the overnight hours.
Edited by
Maurice Nagle
