Linking networks, devices, hardware and software applications–from medical facilities far forward into remote battlefields–is the task of the US Army’s Medical Communications for Combat Casualty Care (MC4) unit. This interview with LTC William Geesey from MC4 covers the Army’s progress in implementing tele-surgery, tele-behavioral health, and transitioning from ‘the brick’ to a multi-use smartphone-type handheld mobile device which can transfer casualty information into a soldier’s EHR. Q&A: Telemedicine in the theater of war (Government Health IT) It reminds us that often the greatest advances in healthcare come at the edges of the extreme, such as war.
See also Healthcare IT News/Government Health IT‘s supplement, The Rise of Telehealth: Opportunities and Challenges, which includes articles on the Alaska pilot of Bosch Healthcare’s ViTelCare T400 monitor and the FDA draft guidelines on medical apps (including the mHealth Regulatory Commission’s comments [TA 30 Sept]).