Chapter 6: ISDN in Medicine and Health Care

Making Information Available

Today most modern hospitals have begun to address these challenges by making the rapid, easy transfer of information a reality. Using sophisticated high-speed backbone data networks, virtually all of the facilities, departments and offices on a hospital's campus can be joined together to give physicians, nurses and others immediate access to up-to-the-minute information stored anywhere in the facility.

In addition, many metropolitan, university and teaching hospitals are becoming part of regional networks joined by similar ultra-high-speed connections. These dedicated networks often include key medical and diagnostic laboratories, major radiological clinics, and a host of similar locations.

In effect, they bring together many facilities into total medical data systems for the rapid exchange of information, and the timely collaboration of individuals in many disciplines in many locations.

At Massachusetts General Hospital, for example, a dedicated data network - with data speeds as high as 45Mbps (megabits per second) - now brings together some five regional hospitals. This network carries a staggering array of applications, from remote video diagnostics to consultations among physicians simultaneously sharing radiological images, medical records and complete clinical and laboratory test results.