The city is home to the Medical College of Georgia, the center of the state's telemedicine efforts. Virtually every state has some kind of telemedicine project, according to the American Telemedicine Association in Washington. It tallies 135 active projects in 47 states. In Augusta, more than 20 people, mostly older people with chronic illnesses such as diabetes, received a computer monitor with its own stethoscope, thermometer, pulse monitor and blood pressure cuff. That paraphernalia sits on a tray, in place of a keyboard.
Patients just touch the screen to make it work.
We wanted to put it together with things we already had. Cable lines connect the computerized medical bag to the hospital, where a home-health nurse has her own monitor and keyboard. Cameras and speakers on both ends enable nurse and patient to see and talk to each other during the exam. Parks and his nurse turned it into comedy. Parks, who lives in a tiny room in a boardinghouse in a run-down part of town, also has heart problems and is unable to drive.