Videoconferencing ‘saves time and promotes information sharing’
 Surrey, West Sussex and Hampshire (SWSH) Cancer Network has upgraded its videoconferencing systems to allow members to collaborate without travelling, freeing up time to spend with patients, according to e-health-insider.com.
Terminals have been installed in several hospices, allowing clinicians working in palliative care to link into cancer units. The upgrade also means that more than two clinicians can talk with one another without any extra infrastructure.
Dr Peter Hargreaves, chair of the SWSH Cancer Network and consultant in palliative medicine at the Macmillan Cancer Unit, King Edward VII Hospital, Midhurst, said: "Video has become a crucial communications tool within the SWSH Cancer Network, as it allows remotely located cancer healthcare professionals to meet without any of the participants having to leave their respective hospitals, offices or hospices."
"The decision to upgrade was taken as we wanted to extend the network to include hospices enabling us to reach a larger audience - plus, we needed to hold multipoint conferences."
"In a lot of fields there's a shortage of specialists. For example, our recent educational conference was with a specialist dietician who came from the cancer centre to give specialist diets for the patients with cancer," he adds.
Educational conferences are being held monthly among clinicians within SWSH, said Dr Hargreaves, and they are "just taking off".
SWSH has deployed the Polycom systems across 14 sites, including the Royal Surrey County Hospital, Guildford, and several other sites in the town, East Surrey and Crawley Hospitals and hospices in Weybridge and Farnham.
The network is currently looking at the possibility of deploying the videoconferencing hardware for use in direct patient care.
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