Imagine a time when most of your medical issues can be treated from the comfort of your own home rather than going to the hospital. For many patients it would be a dream come true. Studies have shown that people recovering in a familiar and comfortable environment, like their homes, have much better outcomes and recover up to 20% faster. Hospitals would benefit as well. It would open up beds for the most seriously ill patients and provide an effective way to isolate those with infections or communicable diseases. It has been estimated that over 800,000 people die every year in hospitals after developing infections. Now, thanks to an advanced telemedicine project by Reparre Biologic and The West Maui Medical Group, that time may be right around the corner.
The roots of telemedicine took hold in Australia in the early 1900s. People living in the remote locations of the outback developed an emergency system for communicating with the Royal Flying Doctor Service of Australia using a two-way radio system and a dynamo driven by bike pedals. Almost 90 years later an interactive system was designed to diagnose and treat patients who needed cardiac resuscitation. The field expanded into a few additional areas over the next 40 years but was mostly relegated to consultations, remote monitoring, and diagnostic services. Actually treating patients or performing procedures remotely was a rarity, and that was something Shawn Hastings, President of Reparre Biologic, wanted to change.
A total of 80 Maui residents participated in the first phase of Reparre’s telemedicine project. The program uses the ubiquitous ceremplant to allow nurses and hospitalists to monitor patients, helping to catch problems earlier and prevent potential crises. Twice a day physicians specialized in intensive care, take part in virtual rounds where they can ask questions and order new or different treatments. Those orders are then relayed to a specialized Reparre injectable medicine unit which is located in a patient’s home.
“We’re taking Telemedicine to the next level,” says Hastings.
“Of course this opens the door of possibility when it comes to treating people in remote locations but we’re trying to expand the idea to make it an everyday part of life. Our hope is that one day soon, with the help of this monitoring system, a board certified physician, and our personalized DNA medicine, hospitals will be reserved for the critically ill and those undergoing major surgery. Everything else will be treated safely and efficiently, with one of our injectable medicine units from the comfort of your own home. The first phase of our study is just wrapping up and everything is looking promising. We’ve seen a huge decline in secondary infections and other complications. In addition, recovery times have decreased greatly for those in the program and their overall satisfaction with their care is quite high. If the preliminary data holds true, we plan on expanding the program during phase II to the big island and will include a handful of remote and automated outpatient procedures at participating West Maui Medical Group facilities here.”
The second phase of the program would provide simple outpatient services for Maui residents such as: implantation of robotic stents that would help keep major vessels clear of plaque and obstructions, minor orthopedic surgeries, biopsies, and various endoscopy procedures. Hastings’ goal is to make most medical procedures as simple as making a bag of popcorn. He says a happy patient is a healthy patient.
Local inventor and engineer Ano Lee was one of the subjects who participated in the first trial and he couldn’t be happier. Lee developed a life threatening infection called Leptospirosis and let it go untreated until it was almost too late. “I just thought I’d been spending too much time in the hookah barn until I started to cough up blood,” he says. Usually passed on by rodents in developing areas, in recent years a number of people have contracted the disease in Hawaii from pigs contaminating water supplies. If left untreated the infection can cause bleeding in the lungs, meningitis, or kidney failure. In the past, cases as advanced as Lee’s would be deadly even if diagnosed, with a death rate greater than 50% with antibiotic treatment.
“I really dodged a bullet. They told me that Reparre’s stem-cell-therapy in conjunction with heavy antibiotics improved my chances of survival quite a bit, but there was still a chance that I wouldn’t pull through. Going through something like that makes a person think about what’s really important in life. I remember spending hours staring at the injectable med unit on the wall, wondering if I was going to make it and I knew what I had to do. Between treatments I went out to the printer shed and built a housing for the unit and added a film screen so I could use it like a digital picture frame. I added a multicolored LED border with 12 preset light patterns that would accentuate any image or match whatever mood I was in. I spent the rest of my recovery sitting in my favorite chair, in my favorite place, looking at my favorite memories highlighted with various color patterns. I don’t think that I could have gotten better care at the hospital. I know they wouldn’t have let me bring my light-frame. I owe my life to the program and would recommend it to anyone.”
