====================
                           JeffNEWS, April 1995
                           ====================


Cancer Center's Videoconferencing System Shortens Distance
Between Patients and Medical Experts
----------------------------------------------------------
Plummeting computer prices and substantial increases in computing power are
allowing cancer specialists from the Jefferson Cancer Center to use their
personal computers to more effectively share their medical expertise with
affiliated physicians at distant clinical offices. The center recently
unveiled an interactive videoconferencing system - a pilot project for the
healthcare industry - that links its physicians in Center City, Philadelphia,
to colleagues and patients at Lower Bucks Hospital, a Jefferson Cancer
Network affiliate located approximately 20 miles northeast in Bristol,
Pennsylvania. The system, based on Intel ProShare(TM) conferencing products,
enables the experts to see, talk to and exchange medical information with
each other from their desktop PCs.

This is a tremendous breakthrough for community hospitals, where most cancer 
patients are treated," says Dennis Kain, chief executive officer of Lower
Bucks Hospital - the first site for clinical videoconferencing, and it's as
simple to use as placing a telephone call.

The most advanced knowledge about cancer diagnoses and treatments can be 
instantaneously shared among physicians while they review medical patient 
information, such as X-rays, CT-scans, pathology slides and lab results.
Suburban and rural physicians can also access information on the latest
clinical trials and outcomes data through Thomas Jefferson University's
Internet home page. "The implications for widescale use of `telemedicine'
in the healthcare industry are substantial and could profoundly effect the
way patients are diagnosed and treated. For example, physicians working in
the rural and suburban areas surrounding Philadelphia can conduct telemedical
consultations in order to select patients who would most benefit from
specialized cancer care available in Center City, while sparing the
remaining patients another visit," says Robert L. Comis, MD, clinical
director of the Jefferson Cancer Center, the Ludwig A. Kind Professor of
Medicine for Jefferson Medical College and director of the division of
neoplastic diseases.

Videoconferencing adds a new twist on the ways primary-care physicians refer 
patients to experts and on the ways basic scientists and physicians educate
each other.

"Our specific goals are to provide JCN members with clinical trials
information and provide a means for physician interaction," says Jack W.
London, PhD, director of the Jefferson Cancer Center's Laboratory for
Applied Computing. "In a broader sense, we are reducing the geographic
barriers between the Jefferson Cancer Network member hospitals. System
costs are minimized by using the PC platform and low-cost, mid-bandwidth
communication links (ISDN)."


How it Works
------------
The Jefferson Cancer Network has videoconference workstations located in
offices at Jefferson and at Lower Bucks Hospital. Each computer utilizes a
video camera and hardware and software that operates in windowed-computing
environments. Using a mouse, medical professionals click on a window-
representation of a phone to call a colleague. Both the caller and the
person who answers see a window appear on their monitors with their
colleague inside.

The cancer center collaborated with the Intel Corporation, which provided
Intel ProShare (TM) personal conferencing software, hardware and desktop
computing expertise says Patrick Gelsinger, vice president and general
manager, Intel personal conferencing division. "This telemedicine
application demonstrates the power of real-time collaborative computing that
Intel ProShare (TM) personal conferencing products deliver."

The cancer center also collaborated with Bell Atlantic, which provided
advanced digital communications services in the form of an integrated
services digital network (ISDN), to develop the videoconferencing system.
The unique aspect of ISDN is that it utilizes existing copper phone line and
does not require the installation of fiberoptic cable. Bell Atlantic can now
provide ISDN anywhere in its operating area. Although ISDN has only a mid-
range bandwidth at 128K/second, these videoconferencing products provide 15
frames per second of video, which is satisfactory for medical consultations.

This is the first application of Intel's new PC-based videoconferencing
system to a patient-care situation. It will eventually span the distance
between all of the healthcare institutions that participate in the
Jefferson Cancer Network.


------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Information provided by:  Editor, JeffNEWS
                          (215) 955-6204
------------------------------------------------------------------------------