Telling Us Why We Should Care About Telemedicine

OHSU's Dr. Miles Ellenby

A few weeks ago we told you about telemedicine and the importance of this new technology across all 96,000 square miles of Oregon.

This week, OHSU’s Dr. Miles Ellenby talked about how it can both save and improve lives in an Op Ed in The Oregonian.

Here’s an excerpt:

Today, 10 hospitals around the state have immediate, around-the-clock access to OHSU’s pediatric intensive care specialists, neonatologists, stroke neurologists, neurosurgeons, trauma surgeons and other specialty care not otherwise available in their community. That means stroke patients are receiving brain-saving medications such as tPA more quickly. Telemedicine also saves the lives of pediatric patients suffering from fast-moving lethal illnesses, such as meningococcemia.

Telemedicine often means patients can be treated in their hometown hospital instead of being transported to larger medical centers. As a result, families don’t have to take time off work and travel to Portland to support their loved one. More than a quarter of the patients treated with the assistance of OHSU’s Telemedicine Network have been able to stay in their hometown hospital. That’s saved families — and their insurance plans — an estimated $500,000 in emergency transport costs alone.

To read the full article…click here.