"People think about California as this sophisticated, urban area but in fact the vast majority of the geographic extent of California - over 60 percent - is highly rural," said Harry. "The providers in those areas do not have access to the $19.95 DSL connections. Telecommunication services are very expensive in many rural areas," he said.

CTN is a coalition of more than 22 partners, including the UC Davis Health System, California Emerging Technology Fund, California Department of Managed Health Care, Office of the Governor, Indian Health Service and California Primary Care Association.


Exceptional CTN features

Medical facilities that are connected through mainstream Internet service providers often communicate through public connections, risking security breaches and often experiencing slow speeds. CTN is enabled with several technical capabilities that focus on protecting private information and ensuring that pressing telemedicine services are addressed in a timely manner.

One feature of CTN is "any to any virtual private network" capability, which allows all members of the network to communicate with each other freely over a highly secure broadband connection.

"Just by virtue of the fact that you connect up to our network, you're automatically guaranteed a level of privacy and security to go to any other of our members with no intervening hubs that you have to worry about negotiating through," said Harry.

CTN was also designed with timeliness in mind. The "explicit tagging of high-priority medical tracking" over the network allows physicians to share and receive the information they need fast. This technological capability allows facilities to use the network to deliver care in a timely manner.

"High priority traffic, such as telemedicine sessions or critical care patient monitoring data at the IP level, at the packet level, [can be] tagged as high priority so that they are [fast-tracked]. They get facilitated access," explained Harry.

CTN now and in the future

The consortium envisions the telehealth network aiding real-time patient monitoring initiatives, transporting radiographic studies and supporting live telemedicine sessions. The surveyed participants of the network are overwhelmingly interested in employing specialty referral services.

CTN allows physicians to use "store and forward" technology, "where a remote physician or a remote site would [e.g.] photograph dermatological lesions and send those to one of the specialists at the referral site," explained Harry.
The specialist can then diagnose the patient and offer an appropriate course of treatment.

The FCC envisions creating a national broadband network, connecting medical facilities all over the country. CTN is currently in close communications with the Oregon Health Network and other nearby state networks about a direct integration of their broadband networks.

Back to HCB News

More Industry Headlines