When a child has a serious illness or injury , parents want the best medical care available, and sometimes that means seeking out specialists not available in their community. Now, local families can find much of the help they need without hours of travel.
“Greetings from Pittsburgh. It’s nice ot talk to you guys in Altoona and to see you just like I would a patient,” says Dr. Barbara Gaines, Clinical Director, Pediatric General and Thoracic Surgery at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC. She’s speaking through a television screen at the UPMC Teleconsult Center at Station Medical Center. She also sees patients there, virtually, before and after their procedures.
Dr. Gaines says, kids are totally on board with the virtual appointment. “It’s very funny when you see a five year old come in and they’re like this is awesome. They love it because they see themselves on tv, they like to see the doctor on TV,” she explains.
She consults via telemedicine with parents and then, using an exam table and medical instruments , evaluates the patient with the help of a medical assistant or nurse in Altoona.
Dr. Gaines also demonstrates the equipment saying, “there’s actually some remote technology that we can actually have a stethoscope that they can put to the chest and then we have some headphones over here like this, and then I can hear the sounds of the child’s heart and the lungs.”
The surgeon says via computer, she can see X-rays that been taken in Altoona. She can also direct a nurse with the patient to do a physical exam.
UPMC Altoona Chief Medical Officer Linnane Batzel says the telemedicine service also makes Children’s Hospital doctors available to local families for emergency and labor and delivery consultations by telemedicine.
“We do have many many excellent physicians here in the Altoona area but there’s just some things that many of the physicians don’t do on a regular basis because they’re so subspecialized,” she says.
Other subspecialities available through telemedicine include a second opinion for breast cancer, fetal ultrasound reads, maternal-fetal medicine, telestroke, liver/kidney transplant consultation, fertility services, diabetes care, behavioral health
