Audiovisual technology enhances physician education

Computerworld - Doctors have long had a tradition of holding "grand rounds" to discuss patient cases and educate aspiring physicians.

The centuries-old practice certainly has its merits, but medical leaders in Arizona want to improve, update and broaden it to include a larger list of health care practitioners, such as nurses and social workers, regardless of their locations.

So the Arizona Telemedicine Program (ATP) drew on its extensive use of videoconferencing equipment to develop the Institute for Advanced Telemedicine and Telehealth, or the T-Health Institute, to facilitate a 21st-century way of teaching and collaborating across disciplines and professions.

This novel approach and use of technology put the T-Health Institute at the top of the Education & Academia category of the Computerworld Honors Program.

"Its specific mission is to use technology to permit interdisciplinary team training," explains Dr. Ronald Weinstein, co-founder and director of the ATP. "Now we're opening it up to a far broader range of participants and patients."

This initiative goes well beyond simply connecting two doctors through videoconferencing. It also enables individuals to meet in person in the newly built T-Health amphitheater. They can also meet remotely through finely tuned audiovisual equipment that can seamlessly segregate both in-person and remote meeting participants into smaller discussion groups.