For More Information, Contact:
David Balch, 252.816.2466
[log in to unmask]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Effectiveness of Distributed Medical Intelligence (DMI) Systems to be
Measured During Unprecedented Humanitarian Exercise

A reputation for telemedicine expertise and ingenuity is taking East
Carolina University's Telemedicine program to Hawaii

Greenville, NC - The Telemedicine Center at the Brody School of Medicine,
East Carolina University will support the U.S. Navy Third Fleet in its
participation in the multi-nation Strong Angel exercise, June 11-16, 2000.
Project Strong Angel, part of the RIMPAC 2000 Military Exercise, is a
civil-military international collaborative effort to assess and improve
processes in delivering humanitarian assistance to people in need.
This exercise will test the ability of the Naval Services of the United
States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Chile, Japan, and Korea to
provide human aid, medical support, supplies and critical medical
information when disasters occur in austere environments.  Fifty-five naval
vessels and 26,000 sailors and Marines will participate in the six-day
exercise.
Joining ECU's Telemedicine Center on the list of non-military invitees are
The World Food Program, The International Federation of Red Cross, and The
United Nations High Commissioner of Refugees, along with others.
Participants of Strong Angel are hoping to benefit from the transfer of
knowledge and experience between the militaries and the civilian
organizations of the seven participating nations.  Eight years of experience
has earned ECU's Telemedicine Program an invitation to play a key role in
the humanitarian efforts of this project.
 "ECU's Telemedicine Practice Suite and Remote Bridge communication network
have become the model for remote transfer of real-time medical information
such as biomedical sensor information and information related to public
health monitoring.  This allows their medical care providers to provide
expert diagnostic and treatment consultation to other care providers around
the world," LTC Eric Rasmussen, MD, FACP, Medical Corp, United States Navy
"The Strong Angel exercise provides another test of the capability of ECU's
system as we demand a complex form of remote communications."
The Distributed Medical Intelligence system is a multi-media medical
communications matrix that optimizes the transfer of medically relevant data
from various points of need to the care provider.

There are three main components to the DMI model: The Care Portal, the
Docking Station, and the Bridge.
During Strong Angel the Bridge at ECU will support real-time voice, video,
and data information from the Big Island of Hawaii to ECU.  This information
will then be relayed to experts around the world to further evaluate the
technological, societal, and philosophical limits of the DMI model.
Partners for the project include the Center for Really Neat Research,
Institute for Interventional Informatics, NASA/Johnson Space Center,
Polycom, Inc., Medweb, Inc., CyberMDx, Cisco Systems, Inc, ViTal Net,
American Medical Development, Vbrick, Prodelin Corporation, and the
Brightleaf Amateur Radio Club.
For more information , contact the Telemedicine Center at ECU 252.816.2466
or view the website at http://www.telemed.med.ecu.edu/
<http://www.telemed.med.ecu.edu/> .


###