Each hospital will receive four computer workstations and the electronics necessary to install a high speed T-1 line, plus technical support and training from the Telemedicine Resource Center. Once connected, the networked hospitals will receive full access to a variety of state of the art health information databases originating from the University of Iowa, including the The Virtual Hospital, a multimedia full textdatabase for health care providers and patients. Participants will also have access to all Medline databases, Micromedex, electronic mail, and other information resources available from Hardin Library. Susan Zollo, head of the Telemedicine Resource Center, explains that the emphasis on health information resources makes this network unique. The addition of the four hospitals will allow the National Laboratory for the Study of Rural Telemedicine, which is based in the Telemedicine Resource Center, a larger user base from which to study the effects of heightened access to health information.
Some hospitals have many physicians interested in our services who are very proactive.
Others don't have many physicians, so we get to study the participation of other health professionals. As time goes on we can point to different usage patterns. The expansion allows us a wider group of end users feeding into this process. Connection to the network presents opportunities for the participating hospitals that go far beyond the immediate benefits of increased access to health information services. But she doesn't anticipate an immediate growth of the network beyond its current 100 mile radius.