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Borgess-Lee Memorial logs on to telemedicine future

By JOHN EBY / Dowagiac Daily News
Friday, April 8, 2005 11:10 AM EDT

The same videoconferencing technology which delivers doctors their MTV entertained Dowagiac Rotarians, who watched themselves on "television" Thursday noon at Elks Lodge 889.

Jim Wurtz, Southwest Michigan TeleHealth Network system administrator and Borgess Health Alliance system analyst, demonstrates the featherweight $5,000 high-resolution camera that enables a physician at one site to present a patient to a specialist at another site. Dowagiac's Borgess-Lee Memorial Hospital was one of the first five of 15 participants to be fully operational.

In this case MTV means medical television, not music.

Borgess Southwest Michigan TeleHealth Network increases efficiency and saves travel costs by facilitating administrative meetings, educating health care practitioners, providing public health education and, eventually, "telemedicine" consultation.

Distance learning and meetings are serving an average of 107 people a month who participate in 3.5 hours of education. Growth will continue as services become better known and new sites are added, TeleHealth Program Manager Bill Atkinson, a former newspaper reporter in the Flint area, a Michigan State University graduate and a certified Internet Webmaster, told Rotary.

Selected April programs include: "Geriatrics: Congestive Heart Failure," from Michigan State University; "Emergency Medical Services: Musculoskeletal Injuries," produced by Borgess Medical Center (BMC); a meeting of the southwest Michigan bioterrorism readiness group; "Care of the Neurologically Compromised," BMC; "Making Data Work for You," Michigan Hospital Association; and CME (continuing medical education) presentations, BMC.

Borgess funded the TeleHealth Network through federal grants and $386,000 in member contributions.

"At least half of the money, $600,000, that currently funds the TeleHealth Network was provided by grants that came to Borgess-Lee," said Atkinson, whose office is at the Dowagiac hospital, as is System Administrator Jim Wurtz's.

"Most of that money comes from 'universal service' fees" charged on phone bills and set aside by the government to provide rural services. "The TeleHealth Network became operational in late 2003. It now has 10, with three or four more in the works."

Its stated business objective is that Borgess Medical Center in Kalamazoo is a regional hospital serving southwest Michigan.

TeleHealth Network "strengthens relations by providing new or improved services to owned, affiliated and non-affiliated health care providers in the Borgess service area."

"If you're a clinician," Atkinson said, "you need ongoing education as a requirement for your license. Types of professional education include CME, continuing medical education, which is physician-oriented. CEU is continuing education units. Contact hours are nurses. There's a wide variety of programming out there. If you're in the medical field, often you're going to have regular meetings, either with other administrators or a group in Kalamazoo or Lansing of other health care providers."

Distance learning capabilities make it no longer necessary to invest valuable time and money driving to such gatherings.

Videoconferences resolve "issues of scarce resources, especially at a small hospital like Borgess-Lee," Atkinson said. No travel costs. Often no educational program costs, such as having a presenter come to meet with a relatively small group of people.

Employees spend a minimal time away from the job through live, interactive, high-quality presentations.

Eventually TeleHealth Network will deliver telemedicine, enabling provision of specialized medical care nearly anywhere. Specialists are in short supply and usually practice in larger markets to maximize their efficiency, so rural patients have to commute for care.

Telemedicine offers the solution of bringing a specialist's skills to or nearer the patient. Demonstration projects between Borgess Medical Center and Pipp (a long-term acute care hospital, or LTACH) linked long-term care patients with wound condition experts.

A second project with BMC and emergency rooms joined small hospitals' ERs with trauma surgeons and, ultimately, with neurosurgeons and neurologists.

The next step is having the clinician recently hired establish a new medical practice once needs are defined and health care providers recruited.

The climate is becoming more acclimated to telemedicine, with regulators and insurers more accepting. Medicare, Medicaid, Blue Cross/Blue Shield and others began paying some telemedicine charges in 2001 and uniform reimbursement is anticipated eventually.

As proof that "the future is now," Atkinson offered an April 5 piece on the Detroit Medical Center unleashing "RoboDoc."

Robots make rounds. CBS News Medical Correspondent Elizabeth Kaledin reported that the medical center deployed 10 5-foot-7, 220-pound "bundles of technological innovation."

The robots don't operate alone, but with a doctor always at the helm over the Internet. With telemedicine, doctors can literally be two places at once, whether it's also at their office or at home, reviewing charts, while at the patient's bedside, too.

Atkinson said patients are "taken aback" initially, but are tolerant once they establish a connection with the professional at the other end.

He said the only problem with RoboDoc so far is that they can't push elevator buttons. They cannot travel to another floor without a human being's assistance. He said the Pentagon is evaluating robotic surgical suites.

Circus returning

after three years

It was announced Thursday that Rotary will be bringing a circus here Aug. 2.

Rotary contributed $500 to the Dogwood Fine Arts Festival.

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