Southwest Telehealth Resource Center Blog

In Early September we had the pleasure and honor of conducting a telemedicine training event as a pre-session course before the Congreso de Telesalud Región de las Américas 2014 that was held in Nuevo Leon, Mexico. Dr. Pedro Ramos extended the invitation to us and he and his associates welcomed us with open arms and made our visit quite enjoyable. Four representatives of the Arizona Telemedicine Program (ATP) and Southwest Telehealth Resource Center (SWTRC) traveled to Monterrey, Nuevo León, Mexico to train a group of healthcare providers, share information and ideas, and learn about telemedicine programs in our neighboring country.

Are you thinking about getting into telemedicine, can’t find anyone to provide services or don’t know who to choose from once you do find some potential providers? This is not uncommon and can often be quite paralyzing in terms of jumpstarting your efforts. As telemedicine has grown exponentially over the past few years, so has the number of commercial companies providing services.

It’s often enough just to keep up with what’s happening in your own local area in telemedicine, let alone keeping up with the world! However sometimes it’s easier than others, especially if your husband is French, reads Le Figaro regularly, and then sends you articles to read (although I must admit Google translate often helps with this last step!).

Telemedicine pops up in the most unexpected places! I was fortunate to attend the 4th International Conference on Information Technologies in Biomedicine (ITIB) in Kamień Śląski, Poland (a lovely little town northwest of Krakow which was a seat of knights and noblemen families in the past and where the castle in which St. Jacek was born is located – which is now a quaint conference center and sanatorium) and in addition to image analysis, computer-aided surgery, bioengineering, bioinformatics and signal analysis are 2 sessions dedicated to telemedicine!

It’s impossible to summarize the 2014 American Telemedicine Association meeting for those unable to attend as it was impossible to see the whole thing even for those attending! ATA grows every year and this year was no exception – it was huge and it was exciting!! Believe me when I say I got quite a cardiovascular workout running between sessions and up and down the stairs between the conference rooms and the Exhibit Hall – which was probably a half-mile long and filled with vendors!