Remote Medical Center Research Articles

The Application of Digital Medical Technology in Maritime Medical Treatment

The application of Digital Medical Technology in Navy fleet voyage is an effective means for medical treatment efficiency improvement, diagnosis capability enhancement, and realization of telemedicine at sea under special conditions. Through the establishment of remote medical center and the design of maritime telecommunications link, various biological data can be collected via technique such as sensors during the process of medical treatment at sea and transfer of the wounded. Hence, a synchronized maritime clinic data center is in place to allow for information exchange between the maritime treatment platform and the hospital on land. With the remote support of maritime medical center for treatment at sea, the advantages of flexibility, adaptability and reliability are clear. The application of digital medical technology in maritime medical treatment plays a significant role in enhancing the medical support capability.

Telemedicine: The Future of Outpatient Therapy?

Early hospital discharge of acutely infected patients to received outpatient parenteral antimicrobial therapy has been shown to be safe and effective. However, concerns over safety, potential litigation, and anxieties of the patient and family about not receiving professional care have limited the use of this approach. Telemedicine may overcome these barriers by allowing health care providers to monitor and communicate with acutely infected patients from a remote medical center via a home computer station transmitting audio, video, and vital signs data. Potential benefits of telemedicine include significant cost savings and faster convalescence, because patients at home may feel more comfortable and actively involved in their treatment than patients in the hospital. Clinical studies have shown that telemedicine is safe and cost-effective, compared with hospital treatment, in chronically ill and acutely infected patients. More studies are needed to further establish the widespread and increasing practice of telemedicine, which may represent the future of medicine.

Remission From Depression Comorbid With Chronic Illness and Physical Impairment

"This therapy aims to address this complex comorbidity so that physically impaired elders can reverse the depression-disability spiral and build a satisfactory life for themselves."

Assessment of human pancreatic islets after long distance transportation

Pancreatic islet transplantation can replace functional insulin-secreting beta cells for patients with type 1 diabetes. More than 300 patients who have received islet transplantation have returned to a euglycemic condition without using insulin. Therefore, islet transplantation has gained public attention and interest. Unfortunately, shortages in organ donations, suboptional antirejection regimens, and difficulties in islet isolation limit clinical utilization of this therapy. Recently, successful islet transplantation has been reported using a centralized islet isolation facility. The advantage of this experience is that it avoids the high costs in building an isolation facility and maintaining an experienced technical team. However, a private airplane carrier was required for transporting islets back to the transplantation site in a remote hospital. The cost of this specialized transportation was still too high to be considered as a routine procedure. In this study, we report our experience using commercial carriers to deliver isolated human islets from an established isolation facility to a remote medical center.

An Application of Computer Graphics and Networks to Anatomic Model and Prosthesis Manufacturing

Computer graphics has now matured in medical applications from 2D and 3D presentations for diagnosis and the planning of surgery and therapy to become the key step in making hand-held models of custom prostheses. The system described here delivers 3D shape information to create skeletal models, plan corrective surgery, and directly manufacture prostheses. Implants and anatomic models are manufactured using computed tomography (CT) image data and a system to generate Instructions for numerically controlled machines. The system combines clinical imaging, an algorithm for 3D edge detection, computer communications, and computer-aided and manufacturing (CAD/CAM). This integration of technologies brings recent advances in computer-aided design and manufacturing to the local community CT scanning clinic in a cost-effective manner. Via computer communications, several hundred remote medical imaging centers can have their CT scanners connected on-line to CAD/CAM facilities that one could not support alone. Operators of the remote CT scanners bear only the cost of computer communications equipment to being their patients this service. We use the clinical course of several patients in whom prostheses have been implanted to describe this technology.