The population in the Mountain Rest area is too small to support a full-time clinic. The telemedicine equipment is used when the nurse practitioners need to consult with the Greenville Hospital System physician on call. Mike McLeod, an instrumentation and electronic design engineer in Clemson's School of Applied Science and Agribusiness, completed the design of the relatively inexpensive, experimental telemedicine system. The equipment can take a still, digitized photograph and send it by modem to a doctor in Greenville, who can immediately discuss the image with the nurse practitioner by telephone or on screen. Watt-Gilstrap is a family nurse practitioner and program manager for nursing programs and services at Clemson University's Sullivan Center.
Traditional techniques are still vital.
For example, during a recent routine physical, Syble Oldaker, a gerontological nurse practitioner, found a mass in patient Herman Russell's abdomen that she thought might be life-threatening. The doctor told me that if the aneurysm had ruptured, I could have died in minutes. Russell is now doing well. In addition to Clemson Extension, there are several other Clemson-related participants. Community agencies are also involved in the telecommunications project.