Recently, the University of California, Irvine (UCI) took a huge step into the world of telemedicine. Telemedicine is the diagnosis and treatment of patients in remote areas using medical information such as x-rays or television pictures, transmitted over long distances by satellite. It is an innovative way for the medical community to offer services to a broader scope of people and UCI’s School of Medicine plans to be a world leader in this area.

On December 7, 2007, UCI officials had a ground breaking ceremony to set off the building of their new 65,000-square-foot, $40.5 million medical facility. Its focus is to train and execute new ideas in the field of medicine, especially telemedicine. The UCI School of Medicine wants to be a state-of-the-art training center for this type of treatment.

The UCI School of Medicine plans on accomplishing this feat by way of a centralized telemedicine facility. It will include a 60-seat interactive televideo center, a clinical simulation lab and clinical skill center. This technology will allow students to learn how to diagnose and treat patients with digitally controlled, full-body simulators in real-life settings. The televideo equipment will allow these same students to watch and communicate (in real-time) with clinical instructors, doctors and other practitioners of medicine as they treat patients off campus.

Since this way of learning is non-conventual, school officials hope it opens the door to a new type of doctor. This new generation doctor will not only offer more specialized services to treat their patients, but will be able to reach ones that are normally overlooked or go without care. It’s just one way for UCI to help close the doctor-patient gap that adversely affects many rural and minority communities.

Besides telemedicine, the new medical facility on the UCI campus will also promote other unique programs like telehealth and e-health along with programs designed for a growing (California) Latino population. All of these programs, along with telemedicine, have the potential to lower medical costs for Latinos and other groups. It will also satisfy a need for more culturally sensitive physicians.

Hopefully, the officials at UCI will accomplish their goal because it will show other schools and practitioners what can be accomplished in the field of medicine. At this moment, however, the new facility is only on paper. It is being built with recycled materials and in an energy-efficient manner. The grand opening for the new facility is slated for November 2009.