Virtual visits with neonates
Christian Pruszinsky
Although parents are allowed in neonate ICU units, family members and friends are barred. To meet this need, Innsbruck Medical University recently launched the project 'Babywatch' in its neonatology ICU.
Installed in an incubator, a webcam relays images to the website www.babywatch.at. Parents can then supply their user names and passwords to log on, via the internet, for a virtual visit with their infants, at any time, as well as show them off to friends and family.
Doctors also can use Babywatch to make unscheduled virtual ward rounds and monitor their tiny patients. ‘The off-limits rule in ICUs is something that is often hard to understand or accept for relatives and friends. It’s great that for everyone with internet access this is now a thing of the past,’ said Professor Georg Simbruner, Head of clinical neonatology at Innsbruck University, who developed the project in co-operation with Chello broadband nv, a Europe-wide broadband provider, and Telesystem Tirol.
01.09.2004
