Telehealth and Ebola: Are they a match?

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As Ebola enters the United States and case numbers continue to rise, the ever-challenging and pressing question among health professionals remains the same: how is one to deliver care effectively without risking disease spread? With the help of Vidyo, a software company specializing in visual communications, a Nebraska medical center may have the answer.

About a month ago, Vidyo’s video conferencing platform was used in the Biocontainment Patient Care Unit at the Nebraska Medical Center—one of only four units in the U.S. equipped to handle these types of cases. It was here that medical professionals were treating Dr. Richard Sacra, a Massachusetts physician who contracted Ebola in Liberia while working in child delivery. The video conferencing unit was used to help doctors treating Sacra interact with the patient and connect him to family and friends. The Medical Center, located in Omaha, NE, has worked with New Jersey-based Vidyo since 2011.

With the Ebola virus becoming a dangerously salient international issue, the ability to remotely treat infectious diseases via Tele-ICU applications—equipped with medical devices like otoscopes, dermatoscopes and labs— is becoming more important than ever. To prevent the spread of infections in sterile settings, Tele-ICU enables hospitals to establish centralized monitoring facilities to address patient needs during overnight hours. Now afforded the option to evaluate a presumed ill patient remotely via video, many healthcare professionals are hopeful that such measures will protect caregivers from exposure, permit a quick response to treatment and protect the public from potential epidemics.

For more information on how digital health is addressing disease epidemics, check out MobiHealthNews’ article here.

About DoseSpot 
DoseSpot is a Surescripts certified e-Prescribing platform specifically designed to integrate with electronic health record, electronic dental record, practice management and telehealth software. DoseSpot is certified to e-Prescribe controlled substances and has provided simple, affordable and integratable e-Prescribing solutions to healthcare IT companies since 2009. For more information, please visit www.DoseSpot.com.