Extending the Reach of Healthcare with Video Conferencing

Healthcare providers have one defining purpose — to deliver the highest level of care to their patients. It’s also important to understand that healthcare organizations are businesses with day-to-day processes that need to run smoothly. Modern technology has greatly enhanced a physician’s ability to run a successful practice, but there is always room for improved efficiency. Video conferencing technology provides healthcare providers and support staff a way to collaborate across distances with one another or remote patients, ultimately enabling greater efficiencies and a sharper focus on patient care. In this guide, we will outline some of the best use cases of video collaboration technology for healthcare organizations.

“When it comes to security in IT and any clinical office, you’re dealing with patient information, and that’s a huge deal. Lifesize put us at ease with their system.” 

— Jared Bares, IT System Administrator, Texas Back Institute

Extend Patient Care

Imagine traveling to a doctor’s office for your annual check-up and being greeted over the phone by a receptionist’s voice. You are then transferred on the phone to a nurse, who then connects your call to a doctor. It’s almost laughable to think that would ever happen in real life. Everyone knows that healthcare is best delivered face to face. But the unfortunate reality is that many patients who live in remote areas are unable to receive in-person medical attention because they reside so far from a healthcare provider. Video conferencing enables face-to-face interactions between doctors and patients regardless of location, without the need for travel. With HD video, doctors can connect with patients virtually, using technology to look at the inside of an ear canal, review an X-ray or examine a patient from head to toe. Patients can then receive a diagnosis in real time via a computer, a tablet or even a smartphone.

“We want to serve patients wherever they are, and our partnership with Lifesize can help make that possible. We have had a good relationship with Lifesize since the beginning, and we know that with their help, we can offer the absolute best in healthcare to more patients than ever before.” 

— Dr. Walter Duffy, Founder, Premier Psychiatric Group

Access the Inaccessible

Even in areas where medical care is easily accessible, it is often a challenge for patients to secure access to specialists. HD video collaboration solutions offer the ability for general practitioners to connect patients to specialists out in the field in areas such as neonatology, psychiatry, nephrology, oncology and more. Whether a patient needs a consultation or simply a second opinion, video technology makes it easy. Patients can receive care from the world’s top diagnosticians and physicians even when challenges such as illness or the expense of travel prevent them from meeting in person.

“Apart from saving consultants lots of time, the Lifesize systems lead to better care — and, hopefully, will help save lives. The systems also have enabled us to make more timely patient management decisions through improved liaison. In addition, there has been more input from the specialists from other sites who might ordinarily have been unable to attend — which is of incredible importance to patients.”

— Dr. Raji Ganesan, Consulting Histopathologist, The Women’s Hospital, Birmingham

Reduce Travel

For individuals with chronic conditions that inhibit mobility, traveling to a doctor’s office for regular appointments can often be a physical and emotional burden. These frequent trips can be inconvenient if patients need to use a wheelchair, breathing apparatus or other supportive medical devices. Video technology helps doctors monitor patients with a computer, smartphone or tablet. Additionally, patients feel more secure and relaxed in the comfort of their own homes while still receiving an optimal level of care. If an emergency arises, patients have quick access to medical professionals and can convene face to face if necessary. Likewise, physicians who manage multiple clinics can use video conferencing to connect with nurses and support staff without having to commute between locations.

“Lifesize is one of the most important tools in our medical office. Beyond the administrative help it provides, the true result has been better patient care. Our patients mean everything to us, and this technology helps us provide the best, most efficient treatment possible.”

— Kavan J. Shaban, Management Consultant, My Weight Doctor

Enable Flexible Learning Opportunities

The medical field is always changing, and physicians must keep pace with all of the latest advancements in their specialties. For this reason, continuing medical education is critical in order to provide the absolute best care to patients by ensuring that only the most modern and well-researched procedures are employed. HD video conferencing technology helps doctors attend distance-learning courses to further their careers and enhance their level of care.

Organizations such as the LION Foundation in the Netherlands offer virtual, interactive panel discussions with the world’s top experts in otolaryngology and encourage physicians to view live surgery demonstrations, all without taking time away from patients to travel. Lifesize also facilitates video mentoring so that more-experienced doctors can work with residents fresh out of medical school to share methods and techniques from their years of practice.

“As otolaryngologists, we need to be in a continuous process of education. By using video conferencing, we are able to offer participants around the globe direct and interactive access to international experts in the various fields of otolaryngology without time-consuming travels.”

— Professor Dr. Wilko Grolman, Chairman of Otolaryngology and Head Neck Surgery, University Medical Center in Utrecht, Netherlands

Facilitate Global Collaboration

The medical community is truly a global one, encompassing the brightest researchers, physicians and professors from around the world. Sharing new practices, research findings and pharmaceutical trials with one another is vital to the advancement of the medical field. With cloud-based video collaboration technology, these brilliant minds are able to connect in a more efficient, productive and lifelike way than audio or web conferencing alone.

“In order for our clinics to be able to connect to remote care providers and offer the kind of treatment we believe in, I knew we needed a future-proofed video conferencing solution that could work with mobile devices of any kind, as well as laptops and desktop PCs.”

— Greg Hales, Telehealth Manager, North Country Healthcare

Lifesize Solutions for Healthcare

The healthcare industry is exciting, and it is evolving at a rapid pace with all of the new medical technological advancements available. In order to ensure that your practice is making the most of its resources and providing the highest level of patient care, consider video conferencing technology for your collaboration needs. From continuing medical education to specialist referrals and clinic management, only video conferencing allows you to work with patients, support staff and colleagues face to face without the need for travel. We invite you to learn how healthcare providers around the world are embracing technology to expand and improve the quality and availability of medical care.

Whether you log in from a Lifesize^® Icon™ video conferencing system in the meeting room, a laptop in your office or a phone from the airport, it’s easy to connect face to face with Lifesize. We support a wide range of devices to support BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) policies and user preferences with apps for PC and Mac^® computers, Android™ and iOS phones and tablets and even a browser-based web app for Chromebooks™ and anything else that can’t download applications. The experience is the same — it’s just the size of the screen that changes.

Lifesize has more than a decade of experience designing and perfecting HD cameras and touchscreen conferencing phones to offer our customers the best of the best. From the patient room, physicians’ offices and even mobile video carts, our cameras and phones are flexible to support audiences and rooms of all shapes and sizes.

Skip the complicated dial strings and hold music and access patients or colleagues instantly. Send a video conferencing meeting or calendar invite to anyone inside or outside of your practice and connect over video right from your browser with the Lifesize Web App, anytime you’d like. All you need is internet access and a video camera.

We make it easy to share your screen with your patients or other physicians during a conference call. Whether it’s going over X-rays, health paperwork or anything in between, you have the option to share your full screen or just a single app with the click of a button. No longer do you have to sacrifice your video feed — split your screen and make consultations easier.

There’s no convenient time for a medical emergency, and there’s nothing worse than not being able to get in touch with a patient or a doctor in an urgent situation. Lifesize offers a financially backed Service-Level Agreement (SLA) that covers the connectivity and availability of our cloud-based service with less than 0.1 percent unplanned downtime per month. The service allows customers to sign into and initiate a video call through the cloud-based service on a 24/7 basis because we know that life doesn’t wait for anyone.