HOSPITALS LINK TO SHARE DIAGNOSTIC INFORMATION

Two hospitals in Southeast Missouri are the first in the region using an interactive link to share diagnostic information.

Perry County Memorial Hospital in Perryville and Southeast Missouri Hospital in Cape Girardeau are now on-line sharing CT (computerized axial tomography) images via telephone line.

St. Francis Medical Center also has been in contact with Southwestern Bell, resolving some compatibility issues so that they soon can use the technology.

The images, which can be used to diagnose tumors, bone fractures and other conditions, are transmitted in real time and can be read or translated instantly.

The two hospitals are the first in the region to go on line with the technology, but Southeast and St. Francis Medical Center have both used telemedical links to staff physicians' homes for reviewing medical images.

The new technology, called the Integrated Services Digital Network, offers a number of advantages for patients and physicians.

Especially important is "a whole lot of convenience," said Patrick Bira, administrator of Perry County Memorial Hospital. "It is a reciprocal feed and has the capability of saving patients traveling in either direction."

The link also allows the hospitals to share resources, said Tom Welch, director of radiology at Southeast Missouri Hospital.

Both hospitals use the same type of CT scanner, Welch said, but Southeast has additional high-speed computer equipment which can read the scans and create three-dimensional images, thus giving physicians more complete information.

Telemedicine also gives Perry County Memorial Hospital quicker access to specialists in Cape Girardeau, such as neuroadiologists, Welch said.

"It's as though they were sitting there in the office in Perry County. It's that fast," he said.

One of the particular advantages of telemedicine is that it gives small, rural hospitals access to the resources of larger, regional health centers.

Welch pointed out that both Southeast and Perry County Memorial are members of MedAmerica HealthNet, which includes three other hospitals in the region.

"It makes sense to have the larger hospitals, which have greater resources, to offer some of the things that we have to the smaller hospitals," he said. "I think it will give the Perry County patients the advantage of additional diagnostic information."

The two hospitals have sent several test scans back and forth, Bira and Welch said, but the new technology hasn't yet been used on a real patient, said Bira.

"We're just waiting until the need comes in from one of the docs," Welch said.

For now, the two hospitals will only be using the link to transmit CT scan images, Bira and Welch said. The technology will allow other types of medical images, including X-rays, to be transmitted, but neither hospital has made any decision to expand the use of the link.

Southwestern Bell developed the ISDN technology, which allows digitized data to be transmitted at high speeds over regular telephone lines.

The same technology can also be used for video conferences and other business applications.