Whether you watch HD from Blu-ray disks or over-the-air HD broadcasts, the clarity of the image is stunning. With widespread availability of professional HD imaging devices, monitors, and support gear, the clarity we’re seeing at home is now making its mark on the workplace and on the healthcare setting. A new phenomenon in smaller medical facilities is the use of HD videoconferencing with offsite offices and specialists. A properly designed system allows medical professionals to instantly collaborate with offsite experts, delivering an accurate and timely diagnosis while reducing the costs of time and travel for the patient. This stuff really works, and it is fast becoming a new benchmark of healthcare facility design.
In the surgical environment, the quality of the video imagery is of utmost importance. This is where the precision of HD shines. HD video cameras are placed overhead giving medical professionals an unobstructed view of the operating table. Feeding HD video to in-room monitors allows the entire surgical team to get a clear view of the procedure in process.
Another benefit of High Definition videoconferencing for medical facilities is the clarity it provides for medical students who can view live procedures across the hall or around the world. The precision of the image ensures that students are not left guessing at what they actually saw. Many educational facilities are taking it one step further by making recordings of procedures that happen outside of class time. Storing video on a server allows educators to build a virtual video library for students to view in or out of the classroom with all the benefits of pause, stop, and rewind. The bottom line is that better trained medical students end up delivering better patient care in their future practices.
We are just scratching the surface of how HD video can improve the healthcare and educational setting, and the future holds promise for even more HD imagery in our everyday lives. Patients are coming to expect it, and medical offices are learning how to deliver it. At Acoustics By Design, we work with architects and medical professionals to design HD Videoconferencing systems for healthcare facilities and medical offices. It’s one way we help meet the demands of the 21st century patient.
