Telemedicine Mixes Health Care, Technology

Feb. 15 -- In 10 years, a doctor could be automatically alerted if something goes wrong with a chronic health condition — and may use a robot to perform surgery, from across the room or miles away.

That is, if insurance companies agree to pay for these advances in telemedicine, the science of delivering health care from afar.

Doctors have been cooperating across distances for years. Jerri Nielsen, a doctor at the South Pole was diagnosed with cancer via a jury-rigged, Web-connected camera attached to a microscope. And medical personnel in rural areas and prisons have used video links to tap the expertise of city hospitals.

But new technologies promise to bring telemedicine beyond the tried-and-true videophone.

One example: Pacemakers from German firm Biotronik get in touch with the doctor, silently and wirelessly.

Other body-linked devices are paving the way for a new era of "tele-homecare."

"There are manufacturers that make implantable drug pumps … neurostimulators to ease pain in your back and your muscles," said Biotronik project manager Mark Johnson.

Diabetics and others with chronic health conditions will eventually be able to pick up "home telemedicine instrumentation packs" at drug stores which will take blood pressure, blood sugar and other readings at home and zap them to a doctor through the Internet, according to Jonathan D. Linkous, executive director of the American Telemedicine Association.

VivoMetrics' LifeShirt, meanwhile, is a wearable, washable T-shirt-like device that monitors life signs. Eventually, it may be worn by firefighters so medical personnel can monitor their health in burning buildings, and by patients with congestive heart failure so doctors can know the moment something goes dramatically wrong. Patients with sleeping problems could be monitored via LifeShirt at home rather than undergo an uncomfortable, multi-day sleep study at a lab.

VR in the ER

Telemedicine is also bringing surgeons' skilled fingers into tiny spaces, and spaces thousands of miles away. Doctors already use virtual-reality interfaces and robots to perform abdominal surgery through tiny incisions.