The Arizona Telemedicine Program Blog, Category: Technology

Lung Cancer is the leading cause of cancer death in American women. But for many women who smoke, that well-documented fact is not enough of an incentive to quit.

They know that when they quit, they are likely to gain a lot of weight. And while they would like to quit, they don’t want to risk the extra pounds that follow.

And it’s not just their perception. Many studies have shown the majority of women who quit smoking gain eight to 10 pounds, on average. And women who quit, then return to smoking, often blame their weight gain for their relapse.

“Does anyone know of a USB microphone that can be daisy-chained?” “We held a camera ‘bake-off’ to see which ones perform best.” “We’re having trouble with inbound video calls coming through the firewall.” “How do you manage secure sign-ons for a conference room laptop?” “Does anyone have ideas for power-supply and cord management of a telehealth tablet at a remote site?”

These are the kinds of telehealth-related questions and issues that can take up hours of a technical person’s time when they’re doing all the research themselves. And often, IT people in a health-care setting are wearing a number of hats and can’t devote all their attention to telehealth issues and questions.

That’s why the members of the Northern Arizona Telemedicine Alliance (NATA) decided to hold monthly “Tech Talks” to share information and work together.

Thirty years after the invention of telepathology, the Food and Drug Administration has approved the technology for primary pathology diagnoses.

Ronald S. Weinstein, MD, founding director of the Arizona Telemedicine Program, based at the University of Arizona College of Medicine –Tucson, was chair of pathology at what is now Rush University Medical Center in Chicago in the mid-1980s when he developed his idea of diagnosing surgical pathology slides from a distance.

He has since been recognized as the “father of telepathology.”

The Phoenix Veterans Health Care System (PVAHCS) is not just providing health care from behind the walls of its main facility in downtown Phoenix. The PVAHCS has a mobile clinic – also known as a mobile medical unit (MMU) – that is being deployed to rural parts of Arizona to provide various health care services.

Telemediquette (ˈteləˌ ˈmedəkət) noun: the art and science of developing telemedicine protocols for technology used to communicate medical information at a distance.

Medical etiquette is defined as the code of ethical behavior regarding professional practice or action among the members of a profession in their dealings with each other.