Michael Braukus
Headquarters, Washington, D.C.                                   
September 
19, 1994
(Phone: 202/358-1979)

Diane Ainsworth
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
(Phone: 818/354-5011)

RELEASE:  94-156

NASA TECHNOLOGY SUPPORTS NEW MEDICAL INFORMATION SUPERHIGHWAY

     High-speed information technologies developed by NASA can
support physicians in remote locations on a new medical information
superhighway by providing them instant access to information and
treatment strategies for their patients.

     The new, integrated computing and telecommunications
technologies developed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena,
Calif., will be demonstrated Sept. 20 before members of Congress and
the Clinton Administration by the National Information Infrastructure
Testbed, a non-profit consortium of corporations, universities and
government agencies committed to translating the vision of a national
information infrastructure into reality.

     "Right now, a revolution in the way we plan and deliver
medical care is knocking on our door, and NASA's going to be in the
front ranks of that revolution," said NASA Administrator Daniel S.
Goldin.  "We'll merge our unique skills with those of the other major
players to create innovative technology and engineering solutions."

     The demonstration will take place at 10 a.m. EDT in the foyer
of the Rayburn House Office Building, Independence Avenue entrance.

     The "telemedicine" demonstration shows how ground and satellite 
communications and supercomputing technologies can be applied to
improve the delivery of critical medical care and expertise to
geographically dispersed sites throughout the country. 

     The demonstration will simulate an emergency trauma situation
in which a patient on vacation in a remote area of the Southern
California desert isbadly injured in an automobile accident. 
Satellite communications will be used to allow a rural hospital to
communicate with trauma specialists at the University of Southern
California (USC) Medical Center in Los Angeles.

     "Using this communications network, the patient's medical
records could be remotely accessed while critical medical images would
be shared by specialists in diagnosing the patient's medical
condition," said Edward Chow, technical manager of the telemedicine
demonstration at JPL.  "Real-time consultation could be carried out by
teleconferencing and the patient could receive an agreed-upon
treatment."

     "This demonstration illustrates the many ways in which
technologies developed for the space program can be harnessed to
enrich the lives of people," said JPL Director Dr. Edward C. Stone,
who will participate in a panel discussion of the telemedicine
demonstration.

     The health care consortium will point out the potential
benefits of the networking technology to improve the quality and
delivery of medical services, including:

     Ÿ Improved analysis tools to prevent expensive and sometimes
unnecessary medical procedures;
     Ÿ Timely delivery of lab results and expedient treatment;
     Ÿ Improved collaboration of primary and specialized health
care physicians using new, high-speed data communications techniques;
     Ÿ Extending quality health care to underserved and unserved
areas of the country.

     Participants in the telemedicine demonstration will include
AT&T, Hewlett-Packard, Hughes Aircraft Corporation, IBM, Johns Hopkins
Medical Center, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories, NASA-JPL's
Telecommunications Systems Division, Network Systems Corporation,
Pacific Bell, Polaroid Corporation, Sandia National Laboratories,
SynOptics Communications, WilTel, USC Medical Center and the USC
Advanced Biotechnical Consortium.

     JPL's work in the telemedicine demonstration is sponsored by
NASA's Office of Life and Microgravity Sciences and Applications; the
Office of Space Access and Technology; and the Office of Space
Science, Washington, D.C.


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