See also: Saving lives (Quicktime, 10 min 25 sec)
Paul Pfotenhauer, producer; Ken Zukin, videographer
Regents learn how UC Davis delivers good medicine from far away
The UC Davis Health System's telemedicine program had a featured role at a recent UC Board of Regents meeting in Los Angeles.
UC Davis launched its telemedicine program in 1992, making the university a pioneer in the field of connecting doctors in one place with patients in another.
At the regents meeting, Chancellor Larry Vanderhoef and the School of Medicine's executive associate dean, Thomas Nesbitt, presented an overview and update of the program. Then the regents saw a 10-minute video on UC Davis telemedicine.
"This is one of the most exciting programs we have," said Regent Sherry Lansing, former CEO of Paramount Studios and the first woman to head a major studio. "I'm thrilled our other hospitals are picking this up as well. It's a global effort, not just a California effort."
Regent Eddie Island, a retired attorney and executive formerly with McDonnell-Douglas Corp. and Pacific Enterprises Corp., led the board in a round of applause for the work of the UC Davis telemedicine team.
‘Patients who wouldn't otherwise have access to specialty care can now get the medical help they need.’
UC Davis Chancellor Larry Vanderhoef
UC Davis will be the hub
UC Davis is poised to become a hub for the UC system's five academic medical centers as they aim to provide more quality care to underserved populations.
Last year's voter-approved education bond measure, Proposition 1D, included $200 million to expand UC's medical schools and enhance its telemedicine programs throughout the state.
Vanderhoef underscored UC Davis' commitment to addressing societal problems and highlighted Nesbitt's role in developing a partnership with Colusa Community Hospital, 60 miles north of Sacramento.
"That inaugural program linked women in labor with obstetricians and with labor and delivery nurses at our medical center in Sacramento," Vanderhoef said.
"And since then, UC Davis has expanded telemedicine to more than 80 sites throughout the state, primarily reaching underserved communities in California. Patients who wouldn't otherwise have access to specialty care can now get the medical help they need."
Telemedicine uses a broadband, Internet connection, computer monitors and small cameras to provide real-time communications between two locations.
Seeing and hearing from afar
It allows doctors to see and hear patients from afar, talk with other physicians, and view X-rays. Physicians at the medical center can even listen to heartbeats.
For the video that the regents saw, UC Davis News Service reporter-producer Paul Pfotenhauer and freelance videographer Ken Zukin re-created the case of a boy who was in a diabetic coma when brought in to an emergency room in Willits, Mendocino County.
UC Davis critical care physician Kourosh Parsapour worked with the boy's medical team to help get him stabilized for transport to Sacramento for additional care.
"What the regents got to see in that video," Nesbitt said later, "is exactly what happens in the rural parts of our state all the time. A child is critically injured and the emergency team in his or her small community desperately needs the immediate help of a pediatric critical care specialist.
"The only places that have those doctors are large urban medical centers like UC Davis. And the only way to deliver that expertise is via telemedicine."