Aichi Back Pain Operation Clinic, Tokyo Back Pain Clinic

Sharing highly specialised cases with a branch clinic is an integral role for medical sites that provide advanced technology.

Motivation for Installation

The Aichi Back Pain Operation Clinic is prestigious for conducting technically advanced back pain surgeries. In order to conduct these specialised surgeries using endoscopes, it is essential to experience a large number of cases. Every day after their examinations, the medical specialists gather in a conference room to exchange opinions about possible treatments while viewing CT, MRI, and X-ray images of their patients. In April 2012, a branch clinic was established in Tokyo, which made the sharing of cases and treatment methods between the main clinic in Aichi Prefecture and the Tokyo branch imperative. In the past, the two clinics shared their information by creating CDs filled with medical images and sending them to each other. This system lacked speed, so a web conferencing system was introduced. However, this system was also unable to resolve the communication issues due to video and sound delays as well as low quality audio transmission. Therefore, they continued to search for a system with high image and sound quality and less delays.

Doctors involved in back pain treatment. The man back in the monitor is Dr. Tomohiko Yamada, director of the Tokyo Back Pain Clinic.

The Aichi Back Pain Operation Clinic is renowned for its use of endoscopic therapy for back pain. The main clinic is located in Aichi Prefecture, and a branch clinic was opened in the Ginza district of Tokyo in April 2012. The clinic specialises in back pain treatment, and thanks to the diagnoses of spinal examinations and minimally invasive spinal operations, this clinic is one of the few institutions that can provide this type of treatment. This is a highly specialised field and only a small number of medical institutions can conduct this type of surgery.

System Select Points

One of the major selection points for the system was its ability to enable communications with high-resolution images and high-quality audio. One of the doctors commented, “the HD Visual Communications System provided extremely high audio quality, as it was able to clearly pick up voices from anywhere within the conference room.” Images used for ascertaining cases also require the ability to simultaneously check and judge multiple still images with a massive amount of data, including CT (cross-sectional images and 3D images of bones and joints), MRI (cross-sectional images of nerves, vertebral disks, etc.), and X-ray (backbone quality, inclination, distortion) images. As a result, bidirectional sharing of the PACS (Picture Archiving and Communication System) images was required while outputting them onto two monitors. This was achieved by consistently verifying and proposing systems that could be switched back and forth and connected with a switcher. The system's high technical capabilities were highly praised by the doctors.

Installation Effects

By being able to smoothly conduct conferences between Aichi and Tokyo, high-quality discussions are possible. In particular, the high-quality audio transmission has enabled users to capture even quiet voices from distant locations, making it easier to concentrate during discussions. Also, fast response is required to switch between images at high speeds, similar to animation, when flipping through CT or MRI images, and the HD Visual Communications System has met all of our expectations. By enabling us to conduct active discussions while viewing the images in real-time, the HD Visual Communications System has become an indispensable tool to improve the sharing of knowhow and to enhance the expertise at the Aichi Back Pain Operation Clinic.

System Configuration and Operation