It’s one of the tiniest machines on the planet — about a hundred times smaller than the average cell. It’s so small that no scientist can spot it through a typical light microscope. Only with an electron microscope can we see its spiky surface. It’s not alive, and it’s not what most of us would think of as “dead.” This teensy machine seems to survive in a kind of purgatory state, yet it has traveled across continents and oceans from host to host, and brought hundreds of nations to a standstill. Despite its diminutive size, the novel coronavirus, dubbed SARS-CoV-2, has seemingly taken the world by surprise with its virulence.
Videos
INNOVATION: PHILIPS “VIRTUAL CARE STATION”
Philips Virtual Care Station, inspired by the VA’s ATLAS program, is a community-based telehealth solution designed to expand access to high-quality care by connecting patients and providers remotely through a secure, clinical-grade environment.
TELEHEALTH APPOINTMENTS: “WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW”
What should you expect when you schedule a telehealth appointment with our physicians? John Carmichael, MD, and Sirisha Mohan, MD, walk you through the process and offer helpful tips on how to make the most of the experience.
DIABETES MANAGEMENT: “SMART INSULIN PUMPS”
Technology is finally innovating diabetes management. With the advancement in technologies like continuous glucose monitors, traditional insulin pumps are evolving into smarter devices that can automate insulin delivery.
Medtronic and Tandem Diabetes are the only two companies to offer hybrid closed loop systems. A community of diabetics are also hacking pumps to do the same thing. CNBC’s Erin Black just switched from the hacked system to Tandem’s Control-IQ and takes a look at how insulin pumps are getting smarter.
HEALTH: “MAKING SENSE OF CORONAVIRUS DATA” (VIDEO)
Public health organizations track the spread of coronavirus and use graphs and charts to visualize the data. WSJ’s Brianna Abbott explains what to look for in the data to understand how the virus is impacting your community.
Photo illustration: Laura Kammermann/WSJ
NEW TECHNOLOGY: SMART BANDAGES – “A HEALING REVOLUTION” (TUFTS VIDEO)
On the 100th anniversary of the Band-Aid, Tufts engineer Sameer Sonkusale is working to make “smart” bandages.
COMMENTARY
The Tuft’s video talks about transforming the Band-Aid into a detector that can warn of infection, or even exude the proper antibiotic. This would certainly be Applicable to Convalescent homes where people can’t monitor their own healing.
I am Looking forward to the time when the bandage will provide a matrix for the body’s regenerative cells to spread out and cover the wound more rapidly. Possibly someday the regenerative cells themselves can be applied.
—Dr. C.
TELEMENTAL HEALTHCARE: “BENEFITS OF MENTAL HEALTH TASK SHARING”
Lynsay Ayer, senior behavioral scientist with the RAND Corporation, describes how task sharing helps fill the need for more mental health care providers.
ORTHOPAEDICS: “TOTAL JOINT REPLACEMENT” (UCSF)
Hip and knee replacement are two of the most commonly performed operations in orthopedic surgery. UCSF orthopedic surgeon Dr. Paul Toogood takes a closer look at what Total Joint Replacement actually is, how it improves your quality of life, and what some of the considerations are when having this surgical procedure.
HEALTH: “UNDERSTANDING ARTHRITIS” – ORTHOPAEDIC TRAUMA INSTITUTE (VIDEO)
PROVIDERS: DARTMOUTH-HITCHCOCK CENTER FOR TELEHEALTH (VIDEO TOUR)
TeleHealth Services
Our Dartmouth-Hitchcock TeleHealth Service Lines include the following:
Outpatient Virtual Visits (formerly TeleSpecialty)
Outpatient Virtual Visits connect patients and health care providers to Dartmouth-Hitchcock specialists via scheduled outpatient TeleHealth visits. Outpatient Virtual Visits increase access to specialty care services for patients located in rural or underserved areas and improves the patient experience via more convenient access to specialty care with reduced travel. D-H Outpatient Virtual Visit services currently offered including specialty clinic appointments, direct-to-patient home visits and inpatient consultations.
TeleEmergency
TeleEmergencyprovides a board-certified emergency medicine physician and an experienced emergency nurse to join the bedside team, on-demand, 24/7. Using high-quality, two-way audio-video communication, the TeleEmergency team assists by whatever means requested, including nursing documentation, direct patient care, consultation, a second set of eyes, assistance with transfer coordination, acceptance, and/or transport.
TeleICN
TeleICN allows D-H Neonatologists to join your bedside team to serve the needs of you and your patients for a wide variety of diagnoses. Some babies require a higher level of care as they adjust to life outside of the mother’s body. The 24/7 support of ICN services helps keep patients and families closer to home by supporting clinical decision making and providing expert evaluations and recommendations. If a transfer is necessary, our specialized ICN team will assist in transporting that patient.
TeleICU
TeleICU provides experienced intensive care physicians and critical care nurses to augment, not replace, the bedside team. In addition, the service provides behind-the-scenes, high-level monitoring and sophisticated analytical algorithms to identifying concerning trends prior to patient deterioration. Not only does this result in decreased mortality and length of stay; it also allows more patients to get their ICU care close to home.
TeleNeurology
TeleNeurologyprovides board-certified neurologists on-demand 24/7 for Emergency Department and inpatient consultations. This includes not only stroke (including evaluation and recommendations, and assistance with tPA administration), but also assistance with other adult neurologic emergencies. This allows a lower cost coverage option for hospitals with limited or no neurologist access, improved tPA administration rates and decreased transfers.
TelePharmacy
TelePharmacyconnects hospitals to a team of dedicated pharmacists who can provide medication order review and processing as well as clinical consultation, allowing hospitals to optimize their internal staffing while remaining compliant with order review regulations. D-H TelePharmacy improves medication efficacy, patient safety and staff satisfaction while also supporting the integration of pharmacy delivery within hospital systems and/or regions, including protocols and order sets.
TelePsychiatry
TelePsychiatryenables prompt assessment and management of patients in the Emergency Department or inpatient setting for locations that do not have around-the-clock psychiatric coverage. Board-certified psychiatrists provide 24/7, on-demand assessments including expedited admit vs. discharge decisions, early management recommendations, and assistance with medication management, while improving the ultimate patient trajectory.
TeleUrgent Care
TeleUrgent Care provides back-up, support and consultation to Urgent Care providers by emergency medicine physicians via high-definition, two-way audio-video conferencing. TeleUrgent Care physician input can include general recommendations, real-time patient assessments, second opinions, advice regarding the need and timing of additional emergent or urgent evaluations, review of radiographic images, and assistance with volume surges.
Doctors Without Waiting Rooms 