The newly upgraded Peking Union Medical College Telemedicine Center was officially put into use on June 17, 2019, highlighting the hospital’s efforts in establishing a hierarchical diagnosis and treatment system, allocating high-quality medical resources to primary health care institutions, and constructing "Internet Plus" cloud-based hospitals, which have been key health care strategies of the Chinese government. The newly completed center, located on the third floor of the Teaching Building, is a world-class highly-integrated hardware-software platform that includes telemedicine, scientific research, teaching and management functions.
“We are determined to build a leading telemedicine center both domestically and internationally. ” said Qin Ming, director of the Telemedicine Center. The new center covers an area of about 1,300 square meters and has 5 independent consultation rooms, 5 remote conference rooms, 1 lecture hall, and 1 multi-purpose hall. The remote video server and the 5G network via China Mobile allow 294 video terminals to join a meeting at the same time, enabling video consultation and conference communication among the consultation rooms, computers, and mobile devices across different regions without any restrictions. Up to now teleconsultations, remote imaging consultations, remote pathology consultations, distance education, and teleconferences have been routinely carried out in the center, and other services including remote rounds, remote ECG, remote health check-ups, remote monitoring, remote ultrasound, and health education are expected to be introduced in the future.
More than 350 consultations have been conducted in the center since its trial operation in August 2018. As an independent and open service, the PUMCH teleconsultation allows medical institutions to achieve the zero-threshold connections with their existing software and hardware facilities. More than 80 hospitals in 20 provinces across the country have benefited from this service. The remote consultation also offers new possibilities for inpatients in other hospital to seek medical treatment from PUMCH hospital. The Internet technology crosses geographical boundaries and enables doctors in a local hospital to communicate with PUMCH doctors anytime and anywhere, which also reduces medical expenses. Inpatients in other hospitals can ask the hospital to send a remote consultation application by telephone (010-69156708), fax (010-69156707), or email (ycpumch@163.com) and select the consultation experts by themselves. Once the consultation experts agree to take the consultation job, the telemedicine center will establish video connection with the patient's hospital to complete the consultation.
A weekly hospital meeting held in the Telemedicine Center, located at the third floor of the Teaching Building, On June 17, 2019.
A mono-disciplinary remote consultation；A multi-disciplinary remote consultation；Distance education；A remote pathology consultation.