OSU Mobile Telemedicine Clinic ready to roll

Friday, March 2, 2007

The Oklahoma State University Center for Health Sciences mobile telemedicine clinic is ready to link patients in rural and underserved Oklahoma with much-needed specialty care. As the distinctly OSU vehicle travels the state, a larger-than-life Dr. Pete emblazoned on its side brings a familiar face to health care.

“When time and distance are issues in health care, OSU has the solution,” said Michael Young, director of telemedicine at OSU Center for Health Sciences.

This month, general cardiology screening begins in Okmulgee, and an internal medicine clinic serving a wide range of patient needs begins in Poteau.

The mobile clinic will be at the Tulsa Zoo’s Be Wise Immunize event on Saturday, April 28.  “This is our first planned community site visit, and we will help with immunizations for children,” Young added.

With its exam room and telemedicine capabilities, the mobile clinic serves as a family medicine and specialty procedures clinic, an emergency room, and a disaster recovery facility.  

When the telemedicine clinic comes to a rural Oklahoma community to assist at a clinic or hospital, it provides communications technology, staffing and exam space. Using telemedicine and distance learning networks, it connects with facilities and physicians to provide general and specialty care, specialty procedures and screenings.  Rural hospitals and clinics can offer their patients care from specialists in distant offices without travel. The mobile clinic brings services to locations that cannot support full-time specialty care, making it possible for patients to get the care they need without leaving home.

The clinic is operational within minutes of arrival and can operate for approximately 13 hours without refueling. Satellite, cellular and landline communications are all available.

Young said additional applications are planned. “We are putting together a proposal to go directly to nursing homes to see patients for whatever they need. In the future, the clinic plans to use an advanced electronic medical record that allows it to virtually connect the mobile clinic with any physician providing care on our network as if they were in the same clinic,” he said.