Teleconferencing and Telemedicine Offer a Future in Equine Diagnostics

Charles R. Short, DVM, MS, PhD
Professor of Veterinary Pharmacology
Head, Department of Veterinary Physiology,
Pharmacology, & Toxicology
Diplomate, American College of Veterinary Clinical Pharmacology
Director, Equine Veterinary Research Program

Arthur L. Penn, MA, PhD
Professor of Toxicology

The State of Louisiana has recently taken a giant step into the future by funding an initiative in electronic learning. There are two avenues in which this is directed, the first being incorporation of LSU into a Southern Regional Electronic Campus and the second being the funding of a video conferencing network that links all Louisiana public colleges and universities. The latter is especially important to the School of Veterinary Medicine as it will allow graduate courses, seminars, and conferences to be sent and received, with full real-time interactive communication between any number of academic institutions in the state. This format can also be used for conferencing with any other location that has teleconferencing equipment with the proper telephone connection, worldwide.

During its last session, the Louisiana Legislature, acting on the initiative of the Louisiana Board of Regents, approved funding to establish at least one videoconferencing center at each public campus of higher education in the state. This funding provides for the purchase of teleconferencing equipment (video cameras, monitors, a signal converter called a Codex, accessories), classroom renovations, faculty training, and telephone line charges for the first year. The Board of Regents will continue partial but decreasing support for line charges over an additional three years. The goal of the Board of Regents is to take the lead nationally in the development of electronic learning, and Louisiana is off to an 'electrifying' start!

Originally, the School was excluded from inclusion in this program because it is not a separate campus. However, Dr. Arthur Penn, a new faculty member in the Department of Veterinary Physiology, Pharmacology, and Toxicology who had set up a videoconferencing center at New York University, applied for funding for the School. The Board of Regents still had uncommitted funds and subsequently made available full funding for a center within the School. Dr. Penn and a committee of interested faculty are presently in the process of selecting equipment to install in a newly-constructed classroom, and perhaps other sites within the School. The center is expected to be operational in January, 1999.

The teleconferencing center will be one of only a few in a school/college of veterinary medicine anywhere in the world. LSU hopes to set a national standard for others to emulate. Videoconferencing opens up a new dimension, not only in graduate education, but also in the area of continuing education. With regard to the latter, the State has plans to establish a videoconferencing center in every parish in Louisiana within the next two years. With this in place, continuing education classes could be sent from the School to every corner of the State.

An additional application can be found in the area of telemedicine, a segment of teleconferencing in place at most schools of medicine, including the two state schools in Louisiana. Its primary utility is in the consultative arena, though it is also used for seminars or special lectures. We believe that there is a real opportunity to develop a consult service with practitioners in the State such that cases can be reviewed long-distance and in real time with faculty of the Veterinary Teaching Hospital and Clinics. Is it not possible, for example, to establish a remote site at a racetrack such that equine practitioners can present cases using a video camera and review a lameness or other affliction with a clinician at LSU? It would seem that there could be considerable savings in time and travel costs associated with this approach where it is applicable. Further, in the electronic environment within which we live, it is felt that telemedicine will be used extensively in veterinary practice within the next five to ten years, as the development of hardware in this area progresses and the cost of teleconferencing equipment and line transmission charges decreases. In the meantime, the School of Veterinary Medicine will be working to develop practical applications that will enhance learning in continuing education and also facilitate diagnosis in clinical practice. For information on progress this year, contact Dr. Penn at (225) 346-3271 or Dr. Short at (225) 346-3201.