Internet2 Health Sciences Networking

Michael McGill, Ph.D.

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Brief review of Health Activities at Internet2

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Health in the U.S.

• Approximately 5,000 Hospitals in the U.S. with about 20% of those in the $1B budget range. 

• Approximately 120 Medical Schools in the U.S. with most but not all at major universities.   

• In 2005 the NIH made grant to 2,500 institutions, universities, medical schools, research institutes and for-profit and not-for-profit organizations.  This distributed as:  

• $1M to 663 institutions • $10M to 200 institutions • $100M to 40 institutions

• Healthcare is estimated at $1.7 Trillion or 15.3% of the GDP or 4.3 times the amount spent on National Defense. 

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Key Health Science Members

• 112 Academic Medical Colleges (AAMC) and their medical centers• 130 Health Science related colleges

• Public Health, Nursing, Dentistry, Pharmacy • Affiliate Members

• NIH, NSF, NASA, NOAA• Howard Hughes Medical Institute

• Pharmaceutical Companies • Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer, Eli Lilly

• Industry• Prous Science, Cisco, IBM, Microsoft, SUN, Polycom, Haivision

• Partnership with Health Information Management Systems Society (HIMSS)

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Why Health Professionals Participate in Internet2

Distributed data sharing• Electronic Health Record• National Health Initiatives (ONCHIT)• Remote Instrumentation• Real time access to remote images

Collaboration independent of boundaries• Geography: Second Opinion Networks• Time: Learning Technology (Distance Education)• Computation: Knowledge Management

New techniques and procedures• Surgical Planning• Remote and Assisted Surgery• Telepathology• Teleradiology• Digital Anatomy

Clinical:

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Biotech Data's BIG BANG

It's like Moore's Law on steroids:

The total volume of biological data worldwide,having doubled every 18 months in recent years,is now doubling every half a year to three months.And this isn't a momentary spike, but a long-term trend that may require new ways to measure, analyze and mine biological databases.

Chappell Brown

EE Times (04/25/2005)

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EACH BRAIN REPRESENTS

A LOTOF DATA

Comparisons must be made across several image sets

Slide courtesy of Arthur Toga (UCLA)

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Some specialties disappearing

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Patient Notes on a PDA†Gregory B Quinn, Ph.D. and ‡C. Michael Wright, M.D., F.A.C.C.University of California, San Diego†San Diego Supercomputer Center and ‡Division of Cardiovascular Disease, College of Medicine

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Recent FCC Order (Key points)

• establish a pilot program to examine how the rural health care (RHC) funding mechanism can be used to enhance public and non-profit health care providers’ access to advanced telecommunications and information services

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Recent FCC Order (Key points) continued

• the pilot program will provide funding to support the cost of connecting the state or regional networks to Internet2, a dedicated nationwide backbone.

• By connecting to this dedicated national backbone, health care providers at the state and local levels will have the opportunity to benefit from advanced applications in continuing education and research.

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Recent FCC Order (Key points) continued

• This program will provide funding for up to 85 percent of an applicant’s costs of deploying a dedicated broadband network, including any necessary network design studies, as well as the costs of advanced telecommunications and information services that will ride over this network.

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Proposal Contents

• Identify the organization that will be legally and financially responsible for the conduct of activities supported by the fund;

• Identify the goals and objectives of the proposed network;• Estimate the network’s total costs for each year;• Describe how for-profit network participants will pay their fair share of the

network costs;• Identify the source of financial support and anticipated revenues that will pay

for costs not covered by the fund; • List the health care facilities that will be included in the network;• Provide the address, zip code, Rural Urban Commuting Area (RUCA) code

and phone number for each health care facility participating in the network;• Indicate previous experience in developing and managing telemedicine

programs;• Provide a project management plan outlining the project’s leadership and

management structure, as well as its work plan, schedule, and budget.• Indicate how the telemedicine program will be coordinated throughout the

state or region; and• Indicate to what extent the network can be self-sustaining once established.

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Network Approach (Draft for Consideration)

• Encourage healthcare provider networks to collaborate with Internet2 connectors to gain access to the Internet2 backbone.

• Healthnets negotiate their physical connectivity with the Internet2 connector

• Based on the input from telemedicine practioners, it is suggested that individual institutions be connected at 100Mbps or higher.

• Healthnets are likely to require commodity Internet connectivity and given the complexity of insuring optimal routing, connectors are the logical provider

• Engineering an appropriate connection from the Internet2 backbone to the healthnet is the responsibility of the connector. Internet2, probably through FiberCo/WaveCo, may be able to offer professional engineering services

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Internet2 Approach

• Step towards building a community• Step toward use of clinical applications that

take advantage of advanced networks• More than just a need for connectivity• Vision is to advance health

•Research•Education•Clinical care

• Help to bring together activities•E.g. VA, IHS, ONCHIT, HHS, NIH, etc.

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Membership approach (Draft for Consideration)

• 2-year pilot program designed to bring regional health networks into the Internet2 community in accord with the FCC program

• Planning group of connectors •Define and expand vision•Connectivity approaches•Cost•Group of 4-5

• Parallel discussions with involved members

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