US Anesthesiologist Monitors Patient in Ecuador

A recently reported case of successful tele-anesthesia monitoring involved a consulting anesthesiologist at the Commonwealth University's Medical College of Virginia Hospital (Richmond, USA) and a patient undergoing a gallbladder operation in a remote area of Ecuador (Sucua).

The anesthesiologist, Dr. Lynne Gehr, monitored the breathing and heart rhythms of the patient by using VitalWeb, software that monitors and records physiologic data such as vital signs in real-time over the Internet. A two-lead electrocardiograph affixed to the patient's extremities and a pulse oximetry clip fastened to the patient's index finger were attached to a computer. The streaming data from the devices were transmitted via a 64K satellite uplink from the mobile operating room to the anesthesiologist in Virginia for real-time viewing on a computer screen. When Dr. Gehr detected an anomaly in the patient's heart rhythm, a surgeon in Ecuador corrected the potentially life-threatening condition in the fully equipped operating room--a converted delivery truck. VitalWeb is the product of TeleVital, Inc. (Milpitas, CA, USA). VitalWeb's browser-based open architecture can web-enable any PC medical device on any platform that supports a browser.

"The VitalWeb link provided the same information that I would have received if I had been physically in the operating room,” said Dr. Gehr. "TeleVital's VitalWeb represents a significant advance in telemedicine with far-reaching benefits for both healthcare professionals and their patients.”




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