The Arizona Telemedicine Program Blog, Category: Technology

Teleradiology is probably the most advanced part of telemedicine in the United States. For nearly a decade almost all radiologic exams have been digital. The film era of radiology passed into history around the turn of the century.

Since radiologists interpret digital images on a computer workstation using picture archiving and communications software (PACS), the radiologist’s location does not really matter as long as the digital images can be easily transmitted to his or her workstation and the formal radiologic report can be transmitted to the patient’s physicians or other healthcare providers. This transmission of images and reports is usually internal to a hospital or medical center, but it can be across town or across the country.

For one man struggling with congestive heart failure, it means not feeling alone anymore. 

For another patient – a woman in kidney failure who was too sick to be placed on the transplant waiting list – it has so improved her health that she is now eligible for a donor kidney.

Both have benefited from an innovative program of Flagstaff-based Northern Arizona Healthcare and a partner hospital, Flagstaff Medical Center. More recently, Verde Valley Medical Center in Cottonwood has signed on.

Called Care Beyond Walls and Wires, it’s a telemedicine-based, home-health monitoring program that has significantly improved the health of most participating patients, while reducing emergency room visits and hospital admissions and readmissions, and decreasing the length of stay for those who still require hospitalization.