NTT Group CSR > Telepathology Systems

Telepathology Systems NGN Field Trials(3)

Telemedicine is a field that requires physicians to accurately analyze a situation in real time. NGN provides essential support for telemedicine and telepathology by enabling the safe and secure transmission of high-definition video images.

Enabling diagnosis during surgery by providing stable transmission of high-definition video images

This is a photograph depicting use of a telepathology system.

The term "pathological diagnosis" refers to both gross and microscopic examination of tissues taken from patients for diagnostic purposes. Physicians who specialize in pathological diagnosis are known as pathologists, and are responsible for the final identification of a patient's illness. If pathological diagnosis can be carried out promptly during surgery, it can significantly reduce physical burdens on patients. There is, however, a chronic shortage of pathologists in Japan, where there are fewer than 2,000 of these specialists in practice nationwide. Because of this, patients at many facilities without a resident pathologist are currently forced either to accommodate the schedule of a visiting pathologist or to wait for their specimens to be examined at another facility.
One approach to alleviating this situation is the use of telepathology, which enables pathologists at remote facilities to perform diagnoses via a network. Telepathological diagnosis not only involves the handling of confidential patient information but also depends on the ability to transmit high-quality images with no data loss, which is why NGN's safe, secure, and high-quality communications make it the most suitable network available for the field testing of telepathology systems. The availability of QoS class priority control on NGN ensures the bandwidth necessary for lossless transmission of data as well as remote operation of microscopic equipment with a minimum of lag time, enabling pathologists to perform their duties from a remote facility just as if they were on site. At the same time, NGN's Caller ID functionality provides rock-solid security for the patient's confidential information.
One of the key envisaged applications of telepathology systems is real time diagnosis during surgery. At hospitals with no resident pathologist, patients are often faced with the unpleasant necessity of enduring two surgical procedures ? first, a biopsy to obtain tissue specimens, followed at a later date by actual surgical treatment after confirmation of the diagnosis. The presence of a pathologist can obviate the need for a prior biopsy and reduce the physical burden placed on the patient, which is why the use of telepathology for real time diagnosis during surgery is eagerly anticipated at hospitals with no resident pathologist.
Safety and security are essential elements of any medical application, and NGN's capacity to ensure these attributes means that we can expect to see many more remote medical applications such as local community healthcare integration and at-home medical examinations, as well as non-remote medical applications.

Employee views

This is a photograph of Yuichi Fujino of NTT Research and Development Planning Department, who participated in development.

NGN to play a major role in future medical treatment

Face-to-face communication between patient and physician is an essential element of any medical treatment. Physicians learn about a patient's condition by observing a patient's complexion and demeanor as well as by examining the affected area. This axiom holds true for the provision of remote medical treatment as well, which is why visual communication is so important. That's why I feel that the safe, secure, and high-quality communications available via NGN are so well suited to the development of remote medical applications. The telepathology system we are currently testing has been given high marks for effectiveness and practicality by the staff at Kanto Medical Center NTT EC. The aging of Japan's population is giving rise to a range of pressing problems such as a shortage of doctors and soaring medical costs, and telepathology is an essential part of providing solutions to these issues. What's more, NGN is compatible with many other kinds of medical applications, including at-home medical examinations and integration of electronic medical records. I'm very proud to be able to contribute to the development of remote medical applications through field trials such as this.