Polycom, a leader in unified communications and International Virtual e-Hospital (IVeH) have partnered on a new model that enables medical experts to collaborate via video and share expertise across 35 healthcare and academic institutions globally.

With its success clearly demonstrated, the model is now being deployed more broadly in new regions outside the Balkans including Africa, the Middle East, South Eastern Europe, and South America, said a senior official.

The renowned IVeH was established in 2001 by Dr Rifat Latifi to create sustainable telemedicine and e-health programs around the world and to rebuild medical systems in developing countries.

Launched as the Telemedicine Program of Kosovo (TPK), it has since connected seven Kosovan hospitals via telemedicine and provided access to an electronic medical library for distance learning with video facilities in Albania, Austria, Brazil, Canada, Finland, Germany, Italy, Norway, Saudi Arabia, Switzerland, UK, and US.

“The Polycom video conferencing solution helps us quickly share knowledge, train the next generation of medical providers, and conduct consultations with worldwide experts to ultimately improve patient care,” eplained Dr Latifi.

The innovative Polycom video collaboration program has helped rebuild Kosovo’s medical system, he added.

Each telemedicine center in Kosovo contains video collaboration rooms, tele-consultation rooms, and telemedicine training rooms, as well as mobile telepresence units in patient rooms which results in better patient care and improved trainings and resources for hospital physicians and staff.

The video rooms are equipped with a Polycom high-definition room video collaboration system supported by a central Polycom RSSTM 2000 video recording and streaming solution.

The RSS 2000 is a centralized server used by each center for recording, streaming, and archiving multimedia conferences and training sessions. This saves time and resources while extending communication and enabling knowledge-sharing throughout  Kosovo and international medical communities.

“Thanks to the access to World Health Organization's medical library as well as experts around the world, regional telemedicine centers are now able to develop their own educational programs based on this vast resource," the expert stated.

"This electronic library logged approximately 54,000 visits within the first three years of operation.  The telemedicine centers provide us with a timely, reliable, and accessible way to bring content, experts, and organizations together in a more productive and cost-efficient way," he added.-TradeArabia News Service