On April 13,2015, Cisco kicked off day one of the annual HIMSS healthcare conference by hosting a media panel to discuss a range of healthcare technology topics impacting the U.S. as well as around the world including the Internet of Everything (IoE), telehealth, and the use of virtual pediatric networks (VPN).

Members of the media heard from leaders in the healthcare industry about how they are utilizing the latest technologies to provide enhanced healthcare to patients, the meaningful impact on patient-doctor interactions as well as the broader social impact on the community as a whole.

One such example discussed at HIMSS was the results of a program piloted by Cisco; the Federal University of Sergipe, Brazil; and other key partners in Sergipe to bring care via telehealth technology to underserved children who may not have convenient access to physicians given they're located in such a remote north-east region of Brazil.

On April 13, Cisco released a report calledConnecting Brazil's Children to a Healthier Future, which includes results based on a survey conducted by Cisco. The results indicated that telehealth helps enhance the quality of care to patients, and also reduces travel time it takes to visit a medical specialist. So rather than traveling to a bigger city in Brazil to see a specialist, patients and their families can remain in Sergipe but meet with a specialist over video. Some of the key findings from the pilot illustrate how the technology is having a powerful impact on the patient care. For example, 93% of patients surveyed and who participated in virtual consultations found them effective and were satisfied with their experience.

The pilot, which is slated to go into full production later this month, utilizes Cisco collaboration technology, for example, to help with virtual patient-to-physician consultations. This connectivity allows for the patients located in Sergipe to receive consultations from medical experts residing outside the region -a method that allows patients to tap into a wider pool of medical expertise.

Additional supporting resources:

Connected Healthy Children -Brazil Video (English)

Connected Healthy Children -Brazil Video (Portuguese translation)

Connected Healthy Children -Brazil Video (Spanish translation)

Connected Healthy Children Program

Brazil Starts Pediatric Care Through Telemedicine in Sergipe

Connected North

Virtual Pediatric Networks Connect Doctors with Doctors

As healthcare challenges are being addressed around the world, many healthcare challenges are actively being addressed inside the U.S. During the HIMSS event, media heard from CHOC (Children's Hospital of Orange County) about the implementation of a virtual pediatric network.

This virtual pediatric network utilizes Cisco technology and creates a hub to connect leading pediatric oncologists from CHOC Children's and five other leading hospital locations with one another to collaborate on how to treat children and teens with rare forms of cancer. The VPN consortium aspires to link to 200 cancer centers of excellence globally including 8,000 physicians through the Children's Oncology Group (COG) http://www.childrensoncologygroup.org.

For more on how CHOC Children's is utilizing the virtual pediatric network, watch the video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=97LPNwSwXcg&feature=youtu.be

These are just couple of examples where we see the true impact of technology on the healthcare industry. Over the next few years, we are going to see increasing adoption of these types of technologies, which ultimately is going to result in improved quality of patient care. To say the least, we live in very exciting times and we are just at the tip of the iceberg!