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From the October 2001 Issue HIPAA and MCOs: Administrative Simplification or IT Modernization? |
Collaboration, Internet Style Healthcare organizations can streamline professional conferences, medical consultations, and education and training with Internet-based tools.
Suppose you could use the Internet to “tune in” to a staff meeting, a continuing medical education program or a professional conference? It’s an idea whose time has come, and that’s good news for healthcare organizations and individual practitioners. Since the Internet is virtually everywhere, more people in more locations will be able to take advantage of the new collaborative electronic tools and make more productive use of the workday. Video over Internet Protocol (VoIP) is a promising new development for interactive conferencing. Online presentation tools that bring the power of a PowerPoint presentation to the PC screen are another. Video and audio streaming offer other possibilities for broadcasting programs to distant locations over the Internet. The IP Alternative Currently 80 percent to 90 percent of all videoconferences take place over integrated services digital network (ISDN) lines. To assure acceptable video quality, most healthcare organizations use bandwidth of 384 Kbps or higher. ISDN’s dominance, however, is being challenged today by Internet Protocol (IP) networks, which are rapidly emerging as an alternative for virtual meetings, professional training and medical consultation. Why migrate to a VoIP network? Cost is one advantage. Many local telephone companies charge by the minute for ISDN usage in addition to a flat fee for the ISDN lines themselves. For a 384 Kbps connection, the usage charges could range from $1.20 to $2.10 per minute per location, according to Network World. By contrast, there is no separate per-minute cost for an IP network, only the cost of hooking up to it. In addition, IP can cut bridging and gateway costs by as much as 33 percent compared with ISDN. Most current videoconferencing systems support both ISDN and IP connections, so the cost of on-site video equipment would be the same. When it comes to delivering consistent video quality, all IP networks are not created equal. While the public Internet has the advantage of being ubiquitous, it can suffer from congestion at peak periods. The result can be less than smooth transmission and possible loss of bits in the video stream along the way. If you do decide to use the public Internet, hook all conferencing locations up to the same Internet service provider (ISP) backbone to minimize possible delays when Internet connections are transferred from one service provider’s backbone to another. Private IP Networks For more consistent performance, create your own private IP network and use it for voice and data as well as video throughout the organization. That’s one strategy some large healthcare organizations are likely to pursue in the near future. The downside is not being able to include videoconferencing participants who aren’t physically at one of the private network locations—an independent physician practice, for example, or a consultant at another teaching hospital. So what’s the best solution for a healthcare organization that doesn’t want to invest in, or manage, its own IP network? Some ISPs can connect you to a shared, private IP network that they own and manage. These networks are separate and apart from the public Internet so they can guarantee much more consistent video quality. Check the service level agreements each carrier offers. These guarantees are a good starting point to evaluate the performance and reliability of each carrier’s offering. Turnkey solutions are an even better solution for organizations that prefer not to deal with all the technical and security issues involved in running videoconferences over IP networks. Sprint, for example, recently launched a service called Video over IP that includes end-to-end IP connectivity, on-site video equipment, security and videoconference service management. More Online Collaboration There are a number of collaborative tools that you can use over the public Internet at a lower cost than videoconferencing. For example, interactive presentation tools are available which make it possible to deliver PowerPoint slide presentations to hundreds of people at once anywhere in the country. This is a cost-effective way for a specialist at a teaching hospital, for example, to announce a new medical development to physicians and medical students or the press. The sponsor uploads the presentation to a special Web site and makes arrangements for an audioconferencing bridge. All the participants need are a dial-up Internet connection, PowerPoint software, and another phone line to listen to, and ask questions of, the presenter. Video and audio streaming also have a role to play in the healthcare world. Your children are already familiar with this Internet technology because it’s widely used to download music clips and rock videos. In contrast to interactive audio and videoconferencing, streaming is one-way. It can be particularly effective for broadcasting education programs, speeches at professional conferences and administrative announcements—any type of communication that doesn’t require live interactive conversation. With streaming, the program can be archived as well as broadcast live. This means staff members who were on duty during the live broadcast can watch or listen to the pre-recorded version from their home PCs after hours. Replays of audio programs can be made available over the phone for those who don’t have Internet access. To take advantage of streaming, the PC user simply downloads the prescribed audio or video player software from the Internet. It’s usually free. The sponsor of the audio or video presentation pays a fee based on the number of participants. The conferencing and other Internet collaborative tools described here can help you cut back the number of face-to-face meetings and the time and travel costs associated with them. Equally important, Internet-based tools enable you to reach wider audiences with continuing education programs, conferences and other presentations. By using the Internet or other IP-based networks as the medium, the cost of delivering your message can be significantly reduced. © 2001 Nelson Publishing, Inc |
By
Todd Townsend, assistant vice president of small business and collaborative applications marketing, Sprint, Dallas, TX.