VITAL SIGNS VIA BROADBAND: - Broadband Illinois

-18-potential: if patients are to avoid costly and possibly painful travel, home examinations mustoffer similar diagnostic capability as in-person examinations; and to realize the full benefits ofremote patient nursing visits, remote visits must provide the personal touch that in-person visitsdo. 63Certain telemedicine applications require dedicated and reliable connections, above andbeyond those supplied by standard broadband connections. For example, the first teleroboticsurgery was performed by doctors in New York on a gall bladder patient in Strasbourg, France;it required the use of a dedicated fiber-optic link to avoid disruptions in service. 64 Because thecost of such connections would make routine remote surgery impossible, practical applicationssuch as rural telesurgery take advantage of Priority Virtual Private Networks (Priority VPNs), inwhich the surgery-related packets are given priority in transmission to avoid even smallinterruptions in the signal. 65Wireless technologies also have an important place in the implementation oftelemedicine. The goal of telemedicine is to use technology to extend medical care intosituations where it was not previously feasible; projecting medical expertise and services intorural areas or allowing practitioners to monitor patients when patients are not in medicalfacilities are two good examples. Wireless technologies allow telemedicine to extend to evenmore extreme situations. Cellular videoconferencing and monitoring solutions allow medicalprofessionals access to locations where no fixed line service exists. Bluetooth and other personalwireless technologies allow full-time monitoring and emergency service even for mobilepatients. Technology now exists to notify caregivers when an elderly person has not taken their63. Dimmick, et al. 134 (concluding that the Home Touch program was a success among caregivers in partbecause of the medical value of the video, and a success among patients because of the sense of security and“personalization” allowed by the video).64. Angela Pirisi, Telerobotics brings surgical skills to remote communities, 361 LANCET 1794 (2004).65. Id. at 1794