South-west hospitals connect using telemedicine solution

Bristol Royal Children's Hospital has installed the Radvision SCOPIA XT1000 videoconferencing tool in a bid to connect with and provide better medical expertise to two other hospitals in the south west.

Using the N3 NHS infrastructure, which provides broadband connections to hospitals in the UK, the Royal Cornwall Hospital and Royal Devon & Exeter Hospital use the videoconferencing solution to gain direct access to specialist clinicians in Bristol.

It is hoped that the videoconferencing tool will minimise travel and disruption for vulnerable patients, while maximising the number of patients clinician experts can treat.

"We are always looking to deliver better and more efficient patient care. This videoconferencing equipment delivers unprecedented diagnostic quality images at 30 frames per second on both streams," said Andy Tometzki, consultant paediatric and foetal cardiologist.

"With this level of quality on both sides of the videoconference, along with the secondary content stream for the live ultrasound scan imagine, I can accurately assess the heart of a foetus," he added.

"Rapid remote assessment helps to reduce the intense anxiety of the family who would otherwise have stressful and long journey to and from Bristol."

This is the first phase of a Radvision rollout and it is expected that it will also be deployed to hospitals in Torbay and Swindon in the next six months.

"I am able to access tertiary centre cardiology expertise easily and efficiently by communicating with the equipment at the Children's Hospital in Bristol, thereby avoiding the time delays and inefficiency of a patient's six hour round trip to Bristol," said Rob Holmes, consultant in obstetrics and gynaecology and foetal medicine at the Royal Cornwall Hospital.