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| Cardial Radiology Conferencing within the Skåne-region |
| Region Skåne (local health authorities in the south of Sweden) |
| SynchroView v2.0 |
Administrator and project manager Dr. Per Johnsson, cardiac surgeon and Head of the Department of Coronary Disease at USiL (the University hospital of Lund) describes key areas and successful aspects of their SynchroView-implementation.
“We went from travelling between different hospitals for the reason of medical conferences because the angiography was on film and could only be shown in one room at a time (says Dr. Johnsson). Then came video and we mailed these, tried to watch and speak on the phone at the same time as the colleague on the other end. In the beginning of the nineties we had video transmitted and for the first time you could actually talk about telemedicine, but the technical problems were huge and you could never trust the line to be open for a whole session. Still, we were off the road, at least. With the SynchroView-application we finally got an angiography conference system that could be used every day with very little extra work. The surgeons can watch their angiography from any PC, whether it is in the OR, on their desktop or in the ward – with a broadband connection even from home!”
In short, the Synchroview system installed in Skåne, the region in the very south of Sweden, serves four different cath lab’s located in four cities around the Heart- & Lung Centre at Lund University Hospital *). Every day surgeons, cardiologists and radiologists at the University Hospital share their experience with colleagues from referring centres and in that same process the angiography, of the patient accepted for surgery, is stored in the Synchroview “PACS” and available for preoperative study from any of the PC:s in the department at the time of choice.
 Click on the image to view it in full size
The picture above shows a schematic playout of the Region Skåne implementation. Lund (USiL) operates as the headend and PACS-server while the other locations are all “Remote Locations” with a SynchroView-station and a Cat-lab only.
(Dr. Johnsson continues) “I remember when patient’s that was admitted for emergency surgery arrived without their angiography. The film was left at the referring hospital and had to be sent with at taxi afterwards. Now that seem middle-age, but we have got used to having access at all times and that is good for us and the patient. A great improvement and risk-shaper within our business!”
The Synchroview system is also used for emergency consulting, not only if patients have surgery, but also when the colleagues at the cath lab in one of the four lab’s would like to discuss a case still on the table with their counterparts at the University Hospital.
“We have a tutorial partnership with the hospital in Kristianstad. In a small unit it is difficult to not be able to consult with colleague’s right when you need it, as is usually possible at larger med-centers. Here the SynchroView-application offers extended possibilities. We now plan for a video assisted SynchroView real time connection between the facilities in Kristianstad and Lund, thus enabling a mutual communication and allow a less experienced doctor to find immediate advice during the actual procedure. The collegue in Lund can study exactly the same fluoroscopy as the doctor in Kristianstad and if they have headsets they can alk without leaving the patient. This is probably the most “hands-on-clinical-example of telemedicin” right now, at least to our knowledge.
*) The population of the Skane region is 1.2 million people. The Lund University Hospital also serves the southern part of the neighbouring county of Halland with their 130 000 people. One of the referred Synchroview stations is installed in Halland at the hospital of Halmstad. Apart for the installation in Lund University Hospital, the other three are installed in Malmoe, Helsingborg and Kristianstad, all cities in Skane.
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