I-T and the ITNet

The primary mission of I-T is to manage the world-wide interactive electronic International Telemedicine Network (ITNet): providing multimedia interactive communications, infrastructure, management and training: for health-care education, consultation, logistics and the practice of medicine, health care and surgery, world-wide, on demand. Our experience includes several successful electronic conferences involving about 10,000 health-care professionals at about 100 simultaneous sites.

The second mission of I-T is to supply the technology for the implementation of telemedicine, where otherwise unavailable. This includes both special communications capabilities and medical instrumentation designed for remote diagnosis, consultation research, and medical telerobotics,

As our civilization advances more from the technological point of view, it is critical that we provide our present and future generations the opportunity to benefit from it. I-T will provide the capability of applying distant learning to the teaching and practice of medicine on a global basis, as well as providing the latest medical advances even in the most remote places of our planet. The provision of education, health and strong spiritual values will be a significant contribution of I-T to mankind.

I-T supports the best in quality medical education and resources for the practice of health care, delivering health care world-wide to geographical locations which either

(1) do not have facile access to needed medical resources and assets for quality health care,

(2) have emergency requirements not met by local resources,

(3) may not have locally-available modern telecommunications resources,

(4) require rapid, professional and low-cost logistic support world-wide, or

(5) are potential sites for distant-learning education, training and special-topic (e.g. new-treatment) seminars in the health-care professions.

I-T supports health-care practitioners, providers, corporations and educators: professionals, hospitals, teaching institutions, public health, emergency services, governmental organizations, and commercial enterprises who furnish the logistics and services of health care.

ITNet

ITNet is an international, interactive on-line multimedia network with multiple functions. I-T electronically connects the sources with the recipients of health-care provision, education, consulting and practice, and industry.

ITNet provides these capabilities via affordable interactive on-line multimedia communications, signal and image processing and telerobotics: teaching, medical and surgical consultation, interactive access to research, diagnosis and treatment including supervised modalities, and telesurgery&emdash;facilitating the teaching, practice and logistics. These multimedia communications include distant learning, consultation, interactive analysis of data and telerobotics.

I-T specializes in providing these services anywhere in the world by providing network facilities using both high-tech transmission and network resources (such as satellites, digital communications and internets, as well as ordinary telephone circuits commonly available anywhere.

Satellite links are used for large-scale or multi-site conferences.

A managed subnetwork of the Internet (an Intranet) is used for most other I-T functions.

Not only sophisticated communications means but also Voice-grade wire, narrow-band satellite links using small portable dishes, and cable circuits, are incorporated in the Mission because many parts of the world most urgently in need of I-T's health-care support generally do not have access to sophisticated wideband communications.

The modalities of these services emphasize interactive linkages between the health-care providers, from hospitals to EMS and field stations, teaching and medical resources in the United States and elsewhere, individual and group practitioners, and industry.

Technology

I-T provides technology to support its operational mission.

We integrate and make available to participants the necessary equipment for the use of specialized communication tools for efficient satellite and Intranet communications to sites not served by high-bandwidth downlinks, as well as specialized afferent and efferent equipment for transmitting.

In prototype and under development with one of our alliants is a signal- and image-processing remote-reading system which will render true 3-D full motion images from one aperture, embodying phase contrast and other advanced optical techniques, for transmission down narrow band (e.g. POTS) circuits. Initially focused (!) on high quality remote microscopy, the image and signal processing technology will be adaptable for remote reading of other medically-important images such as MRI, PET, ultrasound and conventional images.