Telemedicine Equipment Installed at Guam Memorial Hospital
A complete telemedicine system, courtesy a donation from Dr. Nathaniel Berg and the Guam Healthcare and Hospital Development Foundation, including a video link, LCD television, web camera and a Dell computer was installed in the Guam Memorial Hospital (GMH) boardroom this weekend.
According to Foundation Chairman, Peter Sgro, the hospital chose the first floor conference room where the board meetings are held to also become the telemedicine consulting room for physicians and for communicating with licensed physicians on the U.S. mainland. The foundation’s goal is to support the development of a private hospital on Guam, but also help improve the quality of healthcare at GMH and other medical facilities on Guam.
The second telemedicine station will be in the hospital’s education room which will be used for nursing and physician education. All together the donation cost the Foundation and Berg’s office approximately $60,000. GTA Teleguam will donate high speed internet for a year that will be used for the video link.
Dr. Berg told the Pacific News Center that if used effectively, telemedicine can significantly improve patient’s lives. The key now is to train and inform the medical community on Guam on how to most effectively use telemedicine to improve the quality of care they provide to patients on Guam.
