Expanding the Reach of Pediatric Heart Care—Telemedicine Today
from BestHealth, April 2006
When Tiffany Velazquez’s third child was diagnosed with a heart condition after birth, she accessed the resources of Brenner Children’s Hospital from her hospital bed in Hickory, N.C.
Three-month-old Areidy was diagnosed with pulmonic valve stenosis by pediatric cardiologist Wesley Covitz, M.D., using a telemedicine link at Catawba Memorial Hospital.
The link allows pediatric specialists at Brenner Children’s Hospital to look at scans such as echocardiograms and determine if infants or children are suffering from heart or other life-threatening conditions.
Brenner Children’s Hospital has been offering its telemedicine system to area communities for 10 years. Sonographers transmit the images of the heart over the Internet within 15 minutes.
“Our telemedicine service allows us to detect and correct serious heart problems quickly,” Covitz said. “If a patient requires surgery, then we are able to determine that right away.”
Ready access is especially meaningful to parents in the face of such a diagnosis.
“I had a lot of questions before and after the ECHO,” Velazquez said. “So I called Dr. Covitz’s office hoping to speak with a nurse.
I was impressed that he called me back and explained things. That doesn’t happen very often.”
Following surgery for her common heart condition, Areidy is a thriving, happy baby.
Catawba Memorial Hospital is one of seven sites in western North Carolina offering telemedicine access to Brenner Children’s pediatric cardiologists. Visit our website at www.brennerchildrens.org.
The Heart Center at Brenner Children’s Hospital
With expert training to treat heart defects, the team of pediatric cardiologists at Brenner Children’s Hospital offers children the most advanced treatments and surgeries—some of which are only available here.
• A cardiothoracic surgeon and team of medical specialists can perform life-saving heart surgeries on newborns just days old.
• Our Neonatal and Pediatric Intensive Care Units provide the highest level of specialized, age-specific care.
• Brenner Children’s pediatric surgeons have revolutionized procedures that once required long incisions and weeks of recovery. Today, heart defects can be repaired with techniques that use tiny incisions, so children can be back to a normal routine in a few days.
• Telemedicine cardiology service is available at: Catawba Memorial Hospital, Forsyth Medical Center, Morehead Memorial Hospital, Randolph Hospital, Watauga Medical Center, Rowan Regional Medical Center and Lake Norman Regional Medical Center. Outpatient clinics in Statesville and Greensboro also offer the service.