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Patient Safety and Quality Healthcare
Posted April 24, 2008

Patient Safety and Quality Healthcare: Product News

Reach Call Inc. Expands Web-based Telehealth Service Offering

New general telemedicine module facilitates Web-based consultations between rural ER physicians and specialists.

Augusta, GA, April 7, 2008 — REACH Call Inc., the leading provider of 100% Web-based telehealth solutions, has added a general telemedicine module to its service offering.

This new general telemedicine module facilitates faster treatment for patients in rural areas by connecting rural ER physicians with specialists who can remotely diagnose, evaluate, and recommend treatment for a variety of medical conditions from anywhere in the world using a Web browser.

"Our general telemedicine module enables a rural ER physician to remotely consult over the Internet with specialists in other hospitals, allowing them to virtually treat any condition-from a skin rash or burn to a broken bone or an aneurism-and everything in between," said Sandeep Agate, REACH president and CEO.

REACH developed the general telemedicine module in response to demand from current customers-hospitals that already use the company's remote stroke diagnosis and evaluation service. This 100% Web-based service originally was designed to facilitate faster treatment for stroke patients in rural areas by enabling neurologists to remotely diagnose, evaluate and recommend treatment from anywhere in the world. These same hospitals realized the value of Web-based telemedicine and asked REACH Call to design similar modules for other medical conditions.

"This move into general telemedicine expands REACH Call from a very specific use-stroke evaluation-to a very generic competency," Agate said. "Now that we have filled each end of the spectrum, there is a very large gap between our service capabilities and those of our competitors."

More than 50 hospitals have deployed REACH Call in a "Hub and Spoke" design, where a larger "Hub Hospital" provides physician-consulting services to smaller "Spoke Hospitals." Several Spokes are connected to the Hub and leverage the expertise of specialists at the Hub to provide care for patients in their own ERs. These Spokes use a mobile workstation to initiate a consultation request with a physician affiliated with the Hub. The workstation is an assembly of non-proprietary, off-the-shelf components including a laptop, LCD monitor, keyboard, mouse, and a camera. It is battery powered and is equipped with a wireless bridge for maximum mobility within an ER. Spoke Hospital ER staff can use the Web browser running on the laptop embedded in the workstation to register a patient and request a consult with a remote physician affiliated with the Hub.

"Although REACH started out in stroke care, we originally designed our platform for extensibility so that customers would not have to upgrade hardware or spend capital to increase their telemedicine capabilities in the future," Agate said. "Our existing customers can use the same components to expand their telemedicine offerings into other areas."

Since REACH is a 100% Web-based turnkey service, there is no hardware or software installed in the Hub Hospital. The consulting physician can use any laptop or PC, a standard off-the-shelf Web cam, and a broadband Internet connection to communicate with the Spoke and evaluate the patient. The physician, who can conduct the consultation from anywhere in the world with a broadband Internet connection, has complete control over the two-way audio and video communication and can view all patient data and DICOM images, such as CT Scans or X-rays, to efficiently and effectively evaluate the patient and recommend treatment.

"REACH is not just about stroke anymore, and we are looking forward to expanding this portal in the future to include other specific medical conditions, including cardiology, psychiatry, and neurology," Agate said.


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