The Latest in Remote Presence.

As telemedicine networks grow larger and more complex, the task of managing them has become more challenging. That’s why we’ve introduced a new product called SureView™ that puts network utilization data right at your fingertips. It’s the first acute care telemedicine network management tool of its kind, and it’s already being hailed by both network managers and hospital IT staff. In addition to providing network stats and utilization data, SureView integrates clinical workflow solutions like StrokeRESPOND for continuous monitoring of key clinical outcomes.

Before SureView, you had to contact your ITH rep to get utilization data, which was sometimes a day or two old. Now it’s available to you instantly, in a graphics-rich, easy-to-understand dashboard that you can access from any computer, any time.

Example dashboard of SureView clinical software application.

The bigger your hub-and-spoke network, the more you’ll appreciate SureView. Network administrators can quickly identify which sites and physicians are using remote presence devices the most – and those that aren’t. SureView also presents information from the StrokeRESPOND database so you can see month-over-month trends and determine whether door-to-needle time is improving.

SureView simplifies IT troubleshooting by providing a precise picture of network conditions at any time. If a physician reports a problem from the previous night, an IT person can quickly investigate to see if there were bandwidth problems or connection issues.

With SureView, it’s easy to export utilization data to Excel for easier reporting and charting. And all SureView information is sortable and searchable. For instance, you can quickly sort by endpoint battery status or wifi status to determine which units need attention.

SureView 1.0 is available now, so contact your ITH rep for details or click here for more information.

Some hospitals mistakenly think that you can create a telemedicine program as easily as someone can build a patio by going to Home Depot.

Good luck with that.

These healthcare do-it-yourselfers make two big mistakes from the get-go: they underestimate the complexity of the job and they overestimate what their IT departments can deliver.

For starters, any hospital that tries to jimmy-rig its own telemedicine system is automatically considered a manufacturer by the FDA. In its 2011 MDDS ruling, the FDA made it crystal-clear that devices that perform active patient monitoring are Class II devices requiring far greater regulatory scrutiny. It’s very costly and time-consuming to get FDA clearance – and why on earth would a hospital want to assume that kind of liability exposure?

Secondly, many hospital IT folks think that creating a telemedicine network is as simple as connecting two tin cans. They fail to realize that telemedicine technology is vastly different from videoconferencing. In telemedicine, a hospital must manage outside networks where there’s no on-call IT person. And the endpoints aren’t static, like in a boardroom-to-boardroom video conference.  But that doesn’t stop many overconfident hospital IT people from biting off more than they can chew.

Starting up a telemedicine program is far more complicated than most hospitals ever expect.

When hospitals try do-it-yourself telemedicine, their IT staff often gets so befuddled by technical issues that clinical workflow becomes an afterthought – and the end result is a system that clinicians hate to use.

We’ve all had neighbors who thought they could build a deck or patio worthy of Town & Country magazine – only to wind up with something that looks like a bomb site. That’s why we urge hospitals to avoid the temptation of do-it-yourself telemedicine. Let the pros do it.