The Latest in Remote Presence.

Hoboken, New Jersey, USA – October 31, 2012

After Hurricane Sandy, we heard plenty of stories about heroic first responders from police and fire departments, not to mention the tireless utility crews. But there were plenty of tele-responders, too.

One New Jersey doctor went the extra mile to do a remote presence telestroke consultation – and there’s a man who probably owes him his life.

In the aftermath of Sandy, neurologist Robert Felberg was stuck without power at his Morristown. N.J. home. About the only thing working was his land line, and the call he received was urgent: an elderly patient at Holy Name Medical Center in Teaneck had just suffered a stroke and the ED doctor needed a teleconsultation.

Although Felberg was only 32 miles from the hospital, it might as well have been 3,000. Downed trees and power lines made travel impossible. So Dr. Felberg jumped in his pickup truck and started zig-zagging through neighbors’ yards. He finally found a strong enough 4G signal to do the teleconsultation. Felberg confirmed the on-site physician’s decision to initiate tPA. Within 48 hours, the patient was doing well enough to be discharged.

The InTouch Telemedicine System can be used from virtually any location.

Both Holy Name and Felberg’s own hospital (Overlook Medical Center in Summit, N.J.) never lost power during or after the storm because they planned ahead, making sure there was ample power from generators. “If there’s an award for bravery for prevention, these guys should get it,” he said.

That’s a theme echoed in a paper entitled “Tele-ICU During A Disaster” by Dr. H. Neal Reynolds and colleagues that ran in the Nov. 2011 issue of the journal Telemedicine and e-Health. The paper chronicled how an intensivist was able to stay in close communication with on-site hospitalists and nursing staff following a series of blizzards in Baltimore in 2009-10.

The article concludes that if a health system already has a telemedicine network in place, the organization can simply extend those capabilities to disaster support when needed. But the key is to be prepared. If Holy Name hadn’t established a remote presence network in the first place, Dr. Felberg’s gallant efforts would have fallen short.

As police and firefighters know, bravery will only get you so far. Teleheroes – like all first responders – need to be ready in advance.

To read a full account of the story in the New Jersey Star Ledger, click here.

Information provided by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

We’re all aware that the number of strokes per year in the U.S. is about to cross the 800,000 threshold, but it’s shocking to see how much of that is concentrated in the Southeast region.

Just take a look at this map of the “Stroke Belt” to see how bad it’s gotten in Dixie. It makes you wonder what folks in Phoenix, Minneapolis, and Albany are doing right – and why that success can’t be repeated in the South.

When you take a closer look, you’ll see that many of the nation’s stroke “hot spots” are in underserved areas like northern Maine and in rural parts of the Pacific Northwest. But the South is where you see ample evidence of a double-whammy: a large number of rural communities that don’t have access to advanced stroke care, plus the nation’s highest rates of obesity and high blood pressure.

You’d think that most hospitals in the Southeast would be staffing up on stroke specialists left and right, but many simply can’t afford the high cost of on-site neurointensivists. That’s why telemedicine has such a huge role to play in turning the Stroke Belt into the Southern Success Zone.

Although some sections of the country are more stroke-prone, that doesn’t diminish the need for telestroke capabilities in every community. New Mexico may have enviable stroke statistics, but that doesn’t mean much to someone experiencing a possible stroke in a small town like Portales or Hobbs. Survival trumps statistics every time.

This map makes one thing crystal-clear: hospitals in the South must implement telestroke programs with an urgency akin to D-Day. This year, the number of stroke deaths will be enough to fill two NFL stadiums. That’s totally unacceptable. It’s time to declare war on stroke, with telestroke programs leading the charge.

When we recently spoke with the ATA’s CEO Jon Linkous, he said there are plenty of unlikely allies helping to champion telemedicine. On the surface, some of these alliances are head-scratchers. But if you reflect for a moment, you’ll see that telemedicine companies share a common cause with these groups:

NOBEL/Women – No, this isn’t a group of prize winners like Madame Curie. The acronym stands for the National Organization of Black Elected Leaders/Women. They come from the ranks of both state and federal government, and they’re passionate about improving the quality of health care in urban communities. Many people assume that telemedicine mainly benefits rural patients, but many inner-city folks are equally underserved. Many NOBEL women are already sold on the benefits of telemedicine, and they know how to get things done in the halls of power.

Trial lawyers – They’re not the most beloved group inAmerica, but they’re quickly helping to establish telemedicine as a standard of care. In Linkous’ view, attorneys’ efforts may ultimately be more fruitful than trying to get laws passed. Several large hospitals have already had to make large out-of-court settlements because attorneys argued that by not offering telemedicine, the facilities didn’t provide the needed level of care to stroke patients.

Hospitals that do national branding – Linkous notes that highly regarded health systems like The Cleveland Clinic and the Mayo Clinic Care Network are promoting their telemedicine programs in national branding campaigns. When prestigious organizations start practicing and promoting telemedicine nationwide, the rest of the healthcare field takes notice.

If you’re a telemedicine crusader, it’s easy to feel like the Lone Ranger sometimes, but take heart.  You have a host of powerful new allies.  Reach out to them, and be grateful for their help.