UC Davis Health System Devises Telemedicine Links
Published May 27, 2009
When a Colusa County hospital lost the nurses who monitored high-risk women in labor, the rural facility faced the end of its obstetric services. Enter the UC Davis Health System. In 1992, the University of California, Davis, set up a telephone-based fetal-monitoring link between the hospital and the UC Davis Medical Center in Sacramento.
In 1996, the telemedicine program expanded to include real-time audiovisual technology. Today, the program covers more than 30 specialties – including dermatology, psychiatry, orthopedics, infectious disease and pediatric critical care – to give rural hospitals access to specialists.
Critical-care consultations are available 24/7, 365 days a year. Indeed, one pediatrician did an urgent consultation from his home on Christmas Day, says Dr. Javeed Siddiqui, associate medical director of the Center for Health and Technology at UC Davis.
Participating hospitals and clinics provide equipment for the telemedicine link. An onsite physician conducts a physical exam, if needed, and can control the camera to zoom in for a closer look.
“By increasing access to specialists, telemedicine has demonstrated that it can decrease the cost of health care,” Siddiqui says.
Story by Pam George
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