THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, November 16, 1995 TAG: 9511160250
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY DAVE MAYFIELD, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 90 lines
Dr. William B. Olson, chief of radiology at Southampton Memorial Hospital in Franklin, calls himself a ``Renaissance radiologist.''
``I know something about a lot of things,'' Olson said. ``But I don't know anything in great detail.''
The job of general radiologist is a sometimes lonely but necessary one in small-town hospitals like Southampton Memorial, which can't support subspecialists in fields like pediatric radiology or neuroradiology.
But thanks to a major ``telemedicine'' initiative by the Norfolk-based practice that he's part of, Olson is finding it easier to quickly consult with his dozens of other partners and thus improve the care that his patients receive.
Medical Center Radiologists Inc., a 35-physician group that practices at Southampton Memorial and six South Hampton Roads hospitals, has taken what its technology suppliers say will be a world-leading step in the fledgling field of virtual medicine.
On Wednesday, Olson and several of his fellow radiologists demonstrated their teleradiology network. They plan to announce full details of the initiative today at a National Press Club conference in Washington.
The key to MCR's network is its reliance on off-the-shelf computers and software and relatively low-cost phone lines to link physicians and hospitals. Telemedicine has been around for about a decade. But until now it has relied on the use of proprietary technology and special phone lines that were so expensive and difficult to use that they discouraged widespread use.
Sitting Wednesday at a personal computer in his home in Franklin, Olson dialed up the Radiology Department at Children's Hospital of The King's Daughters in Norfolk and put MCR's new network through its paces.
Olson and Dr. Michael Katz, a pediatric radiologist in Norfolk, could see one another via small desktop videoconferencing cameras atop their terminals. Their moving images were inside windows on each of their computer screens.
More significantly, however, the two physicians simultaneously viewed a series of radiologic images: a single frame from a CT scan of a brain, a videotaped gastrointestinal study and, finally, a live ultrasound of Katz's carotid artery as he stood in a darkened room with a transducer to his neck.
Each could see the other moving a pointer on the computer screen and listen to the other's explanations. At one point, physicians and technologists at several other work stations in the hospital logged in to make comments or insert images.
During Katz's self-conducted carotid ultrasound, the physician flipped on the rhythmic sound of his own flowing blood.
``Can you hear it?'' Katz asked.
``Yes, beautifully,'' Olson said.
A ultrasound technician standing next to Katz shook her head. ``This is too scary,'' she said.
Olson said that instead of relying on couriers to ferry images back and forth between Franklin and MCR radiologists in South Hampton Roads, he'll be able to consult daily with them face to face using the videoconferencing computer in his home or at Southampton Memorial. That will cut valuable time from the consultative process, he said.
By year's end, the homes of all MCR partners and the hospitals they practice at will have the work stations. That will mean that the radiologist who's needed to interpret the radiologic study will be able to more quickly get access to all the information and images needed. And with PCs so close to their bedsides, the doctors won't have to drag themselves into the hospitals for middle-of-the-night cases as often.
Dan Rushing, MCR's executive director, said the work stations cost between $4,000 and $5,000 each - compared with $20,000 to $40,000 each for typical stations using proprietary technology. The cost of the Bell Atlantic Corp. phone lines - using a high-speed service called Integrated Services Digital Network - is a fraction of other switched services traditionally used for telemedicine.
Rushing said that MCR is looking for every technological means to become more efficient because insurance reimbursements for its services have been dropping for five years - by 3 percentage points this year alone.
``We have to be more efficient, more accessible and deliver services at a lower cost in a way that does not compromise quality, but enhances it,'' he said. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
CHRISTOPHER REDDICK/The Virginian-Pilot
Drs. William B. Olson and Michael Katz confer with each other about
a CT scan of the brain in a demonstration Wednesday of a
``telemedicine'' project by Medical Center Radiologists Inc. Olson
(top insert), in Franklin, and Katz (bottom inset), in Norfolk, were
able to see each other moving a pointer on the screen.
by CNB