World class team working on telemedicine

Telemedicine at MUSC is a seed that’s about to take root and grow thanks to a $4.75 million grant from the Department of Defense (DOD).

With a $1.9 million portion of the grant earmarked for telemedicine, MUSC’s Hollings Cancer Center (HCC) and the Department of Urology will initiate a program to deliver tertiary evaluation to a specific high-risk population in Beaufort, Jasper, Hampton and Colleton counties from the MUSC campus in Charleston.

One of the procedures planned for the application of the technology will be a guided prostate biopsy that will also employ three-dimensional ultrasound. This will be the first time the procedure will be conducted with telemedicine technology. Other procedures will be added as the program expands.

An approach to this telemedicine project sets it apart from other efforts made at MUSC and elsewhere. Daniel Nixon, M.D., principal investigator for the program, known as Coastal Cancer Control Program (CCCP) - Phase one and William Turner, M.D., chairman of the Department of Urology and co-principal investigator responsible for the implementation of the initial medical procedures delivered through this new medium, have changed the focus of the application process. They are looking at the project from the patient-physician needs first and then applying the technology to that need.

Technology is not secondary , however. “With so much at risk, the technology has to be right,” Nixon said. “So MUSC went outside of the university and selected GEO-Centers Inc. to provide a turn-key telemedicine system.”

Monty Herron, Ed.D., vice president, and Terry Purkable, program director for GEO-Centers Inc., bring both their personal experience with military contract work and the support of a company ranked 72nd in the top 100 military contractors. Grant manager Patrick McShane will provide management support for the eight projects in the grant, including telemedicine.

Herron and Purkable look to the source of the world’s most advanced telemedicine technology, the United States Army’s Telemedicine and Advanced Technology Research Center (TATRC), which have the responsibility for advancing telemedicine technology for all branches of the service.

Col. Gary Gilbert, Director of TATRC, will be leading the technology team, including John Bauer, M.D., from Walter Reed Army Hospital, who will provide the technical recommendations for the equipment necessary to meet the specifications necessary to provide a foundation for future system growth. The team will evaluate MUSC’s needs for the current application and anticipate future needs. They have jointly had extensive experience with the most advanced equipment available anywhere in the world and have field-tested the technology under the most stringent applications in Bosnia. Because the grant is from DOD, Gilbert can commit this high-level team to support the project.

MUSC’s Department of Radiology has been transferring images long distance for some time now. The ancillary form of telemedicine, teleconferencing, is used effectively by several departments throughout the university, including MUSC’s Center for Digestive Diseases, which holds international teleconferences. Also, several programs under the banner of distance education have been initiated.

The telemedicine program initiated by HCC, however; will initiate medical procedures through the system.

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