BYTEMARKS
System sends healthcare to remote areas

By Burt Lum

An Alaskan once told me that when he meets Texans in Alaska, he can't help but ask them if they get claustrophobic living in their state. Texas is big, but you can fit more than two of them in Alaska. And unlike the monotonous landscape of Texas, Alaska is filled with mountain ranges, glaciers, lakes, tundra and forests. Getting around can be a bit of a challenge.

As a result, communities there are much more isolated then anywhere else in the Lower 48. Many of the towns and villages are not accessible by road and can only be flown into by single-engine, four-seater aircraft.

Merrill Field Airport in Anchorage is reportedly the largest airport for small planes in North America. You can rack up a hefty bill flying from place to place. I was fortunate to visit Alaska to see how the Native Alaskans were using telecommunications and computing to deliver healthcare to villages in the great northern expanse.

The project is called the Alaska Federal Health Care Access Network, or AFHCAN; their Web site can be found at afhcan.org.

You can probably guess how excited I was to witness the novel use of Internet technologies, satellite communications, digital imaging and computing all rolled into a compact telemedicine package.

The telemedicine Cart, as it is fondly referred to, consists of components that enable a health aide in a remote village to transmit vital patient information over the network. Based on clinical input, the Cart consists of a digital otoscope for ear exams, an electrocardiogram (ECG) device, a digital camera and an easy-to-use front-end interface accessible through a flat touch-screen monitor.

More details can be found at afhcan.org/technology and wiley.afhcan.net.

A few years ago this implementation would have been too costly. Transmitting digital images requires broadband connectivity and the only way to connect the remote villages is through satellite. With the Internet, prices for wide-area connections have dropped considerably making the deployment of the Cart achievable. These are great strides in our wired (or wireless) planet. ;-)

Reach Burt Lum at burt@brouhaha.net.