The University will partner with The Visiting Nurse Association of Greater Philadelphia for the evaluation. While there is increasing use of telecommunications technology in health care, it has been slow to move into home care, the fastest growing sector of the health care industry, according to Dr. Dansky. The Telehealth technology will allow the Philadelphia Visiting Nurse Association to engage in interactive video, voice and data communications with 200 to 250 of their clients using patient stations which will be placed in the home for a period of sixty days. The Telehealth system captures and transmits vital medical data while providing remote visual and aural interactive assessment of the patient. The nurse station will allow for direct communication with the patient and will display vital sign readings.
Nurses can transmit videos or teach patients about self care through the system.
Paul Hallacher, director of program development at Penn State'sResearch and Technology Transfer Organization, will manage a workshop on technology transfer as part of the project to help other health care organizations acquire and use similar technology. The project continues through September 1999. The federal funds will be matched locally.