Tel-Echo Tele-Echocardiography System Improves Patient Care

Innovative Medical Solutions has introduced the Tel-Echo system for all tele-echocardiography applications to connect hospitals and offices, support mobile services, and provide on call service for adult and pediatric cardiology over any telecommunications line and from any ultrasound machine. Tele-echocardiography, the transmission of cardiac ultrasound exams over telecommunication lines, is essential to improve service, expand coverage, and reduce cost.

The first installation was in October 1999 in the Indiana Heart Institute at St. Vincent Hospital in Indianapolis, IN. "Being able to read the exams shortly after they are done results in much improved patient care," reports Sanjay Parikh, MD Medical Director of Pediatric Cardiology at St. Vincent. "This system has been very important to our outreach program," he says. St. Vincent currently has two outlying hospitals connected with Tel-Echo and plans to add more.

Tel-Echo is focused on tele-echocardiography, the transmission of echocardiograms between different locations. It is compatible with ultrasound systems using either video tape or digital media. Transmission line choices include plain old telephone lines, ISDN, 3ISDN, T1, and DSL. The exam data is encoded and sent during the exam as digital packets using a store and forward technique allowing near realtime interaction. The various choices of transmission lines and compression ratios allow the system to be configured to fit the needs of the individual practice and budget.

"We designed the Tel-Echo to be both flexible and simple to use, not an easy task" says Larry Sieb of Innovative Medical. "It is gratifying to work with different clinicians and discover the various ways Tel-Echo can fit into their practices to improve service and patient care."

CONTACT: Larry Sieb, Innovative Medical
262-569-5716; http://www.tel-echo.com
Tonya Ellis, St. Vincent Hospital Public Relations
Tel: 317-338-8224; Media Pager: 317-338-3550, #8225