Technology July 16, 2009, 12:40AM EST

Cisco, UnitedHealth Partner on e-Health Network

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Cisco said 90% of the participants indicated they would recommend the program to others.

Cisco is currently piloting another program with its 4,000 employees in its Raleigh, N.C. facility, who will have telehealth access to five primary care physicians located in its San Jose corporate Care Center medical facility.

Frances Dare, director in the health care consulting practice for the Cisco Internet Business Solutions Group, said the telehealth technology is changing hthe game in that historically telemedicine has been thought of only as a way to provide care where none is available otherwise, but some of some of the patients in Cisco's pilot program preferred the telepresence-based interaction with the care provider because it was information-rich.

"So while the gold standard for a patient experience in the past has been a face to face encounter with a doctor. That may well change with some of these technologies," Dare said. "And if the new gold standard is that media-rich interaction using telepresence and other technologies, it completely redefines how I get care, when I get care and who provides my care."

Dr. Pam Hymel, senior director of corporate medical programs for Cisco, said remote telemedical facilities in retail or corporate—even government facilities—would be less expensive in that they could be staffed with a nurse or medical assistant who can then use the biomedical equipment for a physician to diagnose ailments.

Hymel cited estimates by the Association of American Medical Colleges predicting that the U.S. will be short 159,000 primary care physicians by 2025 because of the country's growing population and a lack of interest by medical students to enter into primary care.

With a telemedice network, the health care providers that are part of a patient's continuum of care—the primary care physicians, the hospitals, the clinics, the home health care providers—can be connected at any point of time, Hymel said.

"So it's a central hub of health care providers to contend with the underserved. This is a great opportunity to increase accessibility, affordability and quality of care," he said.

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