The H7N9 avian influenza had been restricted to Shanghai and neighboring regions on the eastern seaboard on the Chinese mainland recently, but still it has infected over a hundred people resulting in more than 20 deaths. Experts worry that any new mutation could see H7N9 quickly spread across large areas of the mainland, and beyond.

In-person patient care can often prove difficult and time-consuming as patients are required to be quarantined to ensure full recovery and prevent the spread of disease. Having experienced SARS 10 years ago on the mainland and in Hong Kong, healthcare professionals are worried about being infected at work as it may cause a higher number of casualties. With this in mind, the hospitals could consider using telemedicine as a way to prevent infectious diseases from spreading. Telemedicine uses face-to-face communication and collaboration via high-definition video to minimize the number of people that have direct contact during the treatment process.

According to a recent report by BCC Research, the global telemedicine market grew from $9.8 billion in 2010 to $11.6 billion in 2011 and will almost triple to $27.3 billion in 2016 - a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 18.6 percent over the next five years. Clearly, the global market sees the need for deploying telemedicine, as does Hong Kong.

Through telemedicine, local healthcare professionals can seek advice from overseas specialists and gather insights from global experts. Family support is critical and while family members in a contagious environment cannot physically connect with their loved ones, via video, family members can stay in touch anytime of the day without risk to themselves. In addition, it can be used as an emergency command center with video sites across the hospital network for the purposes of facilitating remote treatment and for practitioners to report patient updates back to the command center to identify any potential new and harmful diseases. The real-time nature of this technology enables the medical sector to act quickly to prevent further spread of the disease, issue a warning policy and inform the public.

In early April, Beijing reported its first case of a 7-year-old girl infected with the H7N9 virus. She was sent to a quarantine room in Beijing Ditan Hospital for treatment. With its telemedicine solution, specialists at the hospital connected with the patient via video and were able to consult with overseas experts about the patient's situation. The telemedicine network at the hospital is helping to isolate and contain H7N9 throughout the mainland and enables the hospital to streamline specialist care without sacrificing quality of treatment. This contributes to higher public safety levels by reducing the risk of spreading disease and ensuring the well-being of its patients.

With memories of SARS 10 years ago still fresh in our mind, hospitals should evaluate their emergency measures and procedures to make sure they are well prepared should there be further spread of the disease.

While telemedicine can play a vital role during medical crises, on a day-to-day basis the technology also offers many benefits to the medical sector. In Hong Kong, healthcare organizations are under pressure to reduce costs, increase revenues, and deliver the best possible patient care with current available resources; at the same time they are challenged by the rise in demand for medical care as a result of an aging population, stringent privacy requirements and a shortage of healthcare professionals.

With telemedicine, healthcare professionals can offer the elderly remote follow-up appointments given that most of the time these are routine check-ups. This will reduce the waiting times at public hospitals and increase productivity. Medical professionals can also easily get access to specialists overseas or even in other local hospitals via tele-presence and ask for consultancy and advice when dealing with complicated cases. This reduces the time a patient has to wait for a potential diagnosis and eliminates the need for them to make an appointment with a specialist, ultimately improving the efficiency of the medical system. In short, telemedicine can help medical organizations achieve more with less.

The author is technical director of Greater China, Polycom.

(HK Edition 05/10/2013 page1)