Classroom connection

Dave Brooks

Most fifth-graders wouldn’t get so excited about a math test. Of

course, Christina Bowers is no ordinary fifth-grader.

Several weeks ago the Huntington Beach youngster enthusiastically

took a math exam with students at Maranatha Elementary. She was

excited because she did so from her intensive care room at the

Children’s Hospital of Orange County.

Using a high-tech video conferencing system pioneered by the

hospital’s Information Technology department, Bowers was able to

watch her classmates as they scribbled notes and watched their

teacher write the day’s lesson on the blackboard.

“We only planned to run the camera for a few minutes at first, but

she wanted us to keep it running for the math test,” said project

manager Mike Shea. “I thought to myself, ‘What kid likes taking a

math test?’”

Christina’s mom, Celeste Bowers, said it wasn’t the test her

daughter enjoyed, but being able to reconnect with the life she had

left behind after weeks in intensive care, fighting a rare form of

cancer that has left her weak and confined to a small hospital room.

“The most amazing part was when we removed the towel from the

camera in Christina’s room and all her friends were able to see her,”

Celeste Bowers said. “They were pretty excited and ran up to the

camera, asking Christina how she was doing and how she felt. It was a

very big deal for us.”

An even bigger deal came days later when Christina was able to

return home for a brief visit. Technicians at the hospital said the

“Patient Connect” system could connect individuals to home events,

reunions and even business meetings.

“We actually hired two people to the hospital using this

technology,” Shea said. “It saved us the cost of having to fly them

out for an interview.”

The concept behind Patient Connect is relatively simple: Two

cameras are set up in remote locations and attached to televisions or

monitors providing a two-way broadcast of the site. It begins to get

complicated, Shea said, when the technicians try to boost the

broadcast quality of the cameras. The system takes an extraordinary

amount of bandwidth, and coordinating the technology to work with the

individual school’s security systems and firewalls can be a computer

engineering feat.

The cameras also use a remote control system. Using a hand-held

device, patients can pan and even closely zoom in on the

counterparts. Shea said the zoom quality is high enough to read

details from a wall map several feet away.

Engineers at the hospital plan to expand the technology to other

schools in the county. Hospital IT specialist Ray de la Cruz said the

Children’s Hospital is working with the Orange County Department of

Education to build a camera network capable of transmitting images

from the county’s vast array of academic institutions.

“We’re trying to come up with a turn key approach to make the

technology available within 24 hours of it coming to the door,” he

said.

Patients who participate in the program usually deal with

long-term health problems and are identified by the hospitals’ Child

Life program. The facility also provides patients with laptops,

e-mail addresses and still-shot Web cams to communicate with their

friends.

“The Patient Connect program is just an extension of that,

allowing patients an opportunity to participate in activities they

otherwise wouldn’t be able to do,” de la Cruz said.

And, he added, the patients aren’t the only ones who benefit.

“Most of us get involved in IT knowing that we won’t get to work

directly with patients,” de la Cruz said. “But this has given us a

different perspective. Now we can be involved in their lives and try

to make a difference in the child’s stay.”

* DAVE BROOKS covers City Hall. He can be reached at (714)

966-4609 or by e-mail at [email protected].