SPRINGFIELD, CO – Southeast Colorado Hospital, a 25-bed facility in Springfield, has access to neurology specialists hundreds of miles away, via the Colorado Digital Online Consultant (CO-DOC), a Web-based video and audio monitoring system.

Southeast Colorado and eight other Colorado health facilities are connected to Swedish Medical Center in Englewood, Colo., a nationally certified center. These hospitals are located in areas with the highest incidences of stroke occurrences in the state. Southeast Colorado has received two patients since going online in May.

CO-DOC enables an on-call neurologist to examine the patient and communicate with the hospital staff using Web cameras with zooming capabilities. The synchronized video and audio and the necessary test results are transmitted via an Internet connection to an on-call neurologist with a wireless laptop and video/ headset combination.

“It puts the neurologist right into the emergency department with our staff,” said Cecelia Deen, chief nursing officer at Southeast Colorado Hospital. “He can assess the patient, see the CT scans and monitor the t-PA dosage. Both doctors converse face to face as well as with the patient.”

A specialist looking for neural damage needs a smooth video quality as stroke symptoms often manifest themselves in jerkiness of the body. “The video and audio quality [with CO-DOC] is like watching television,” said Chris Fanale, MD, a neurologist at Swedish Medical Center and the physician coordinator of CO-DOC.

Many neurologists carry the program information on a thumb drive attached to their key chain, using the program from their home or office, according to Ron Fellman, president and CEO of BF Technologies, the provider of the CO-DOC technology. BF Technologies worked with neurologists at the University of California at San Diego to develop CO-DOC.

The company supplies a similar technology to hospitals in New York and California. Funding for CO-DOC comes from private donors, some of the remote hospitals themselves and a state grant obtained by the Colorado Neurological Institute.

The technology has the potential to expand to other geographical areas, Fanale said. “My vision is to have a 20-camera network [with CO-DOC]. I would like to expand this system to other states in the Rocky Mountain area so that we can have stroke specialists for everybody.”