Brazil Starts Pediatric Care rough Telemedicine in Sergipe

Brazil Starts Pediatric Care Through Telemedicine in Sergipe Cisco and Federal University of Sergipe s project provides medical care at distance to children from Lagarto and Tobias Barreto cities. Technology also allows the offer of continuing education programs for health professionals

S o Paulo, Brazil, February 18, 2014 - The adoption of technology is shortening distances and accelerating access to healthcare of patients from rural areas of Sergipe, in Brazil s northeastern region. Cisco and the Federal University of Sergipe (UFS) launch today the second phase of the "Advanced Healthcare Collaboration and Education Program", with the start of pediatric care through telemedicine in Tobias Barreto and Lagarto cities.

The Family Health Clinics of the two cities are connected to hospitals and specialists in Aracaju, capital of the state, and S o Cristov o, where the UFS campus is located. The goal is to improve access to specialized care and improve the quality of life and services received by children and their families.

About 80 virtual doctor appointments per month will be performed initially. They are monitored in real time by specialists at the University Hospital of Aracaju preventing children and their families from having to travel for specialized care. And the medical teams will be able to jointly assess each case without having to leave their own town. Due to the quality of sound and high-definition image of the Cisco TelePresence telemedicine solution, specialists will be able to view and talk to the children, access lab results and aid the local general practitioner with a second opinion.

The project is part of Cisco's global program of social responsibility called Connected Healthy Children and combines the efforts of UFS, an institution acknowledged for its excellence in medical sciences with those of medical assistance providers in the cities involved. It is also sponsored by the Government of Sergipe State, Ministry of Health and City Halls and Health Secretaries of Tobias Barreto and Lagarto.

After the first phase implementing Cisco solutions and training doctors between October last year and January this year, the new phase of the project also marks the implementation of continuing education programs, providing distance learning opportunities to state health professionals. With the collaboration and cloud tools Show and Share , WebEx , and Jabber , it will be possible to create and manage highly secure video communities, schedule virtual classroom sessions, and remotely access services through mobile devices.

Telepresence also allows the training and the presentation of projects by students from medical schools of the University, for example. Collaboration will enhance the knowledge and training of local assistance teams, improving their access to scientific content available at centers of excellence. As for local medical teams, engaging in collaborative efforts with specialists will increase their capability to intervene and improve decision-making processes.

The outcome of consults and effects of the program on children's lives are also expected to be starting in the second semester of 2014, when Cisco and UFS intend to announce the first studies on the program's impact in Tobias Barreto and Largarto.

Supporting Quotes

Angelo Antoniolli, dean of the Federal University of Sergipe (UFS)

"It is part of the University responsibility to contribute to social development using our scientific knowledge to improve the quality of life. This successful collaboration with Cisco has to settle this proposal to internalize the quality of public health. Everything is aligned to the pedagogical actions of the Federal University of Sergipe and supports the Brazilian Public Health System, which are some of our major commitments".

Rodrigo Dienstmann, president of Cisco in Brazil

"The Advanced Healthcare Collaboration and Education Program of Sergipe is a proof that the technology can improve the quality of life by providing access to health. Our goal is to make a standard out of Sergipe's project in the use of public health technology, transforming Brazil into a Latin-American center of an international network of children s health care.

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