John Paul II Hospital in Krakow: 21st-Century Medical Care

Cisco Solutions Enable Telediagnostics and Video Transmissions of Surgeries

KRAKOW, Poland, Jan 20, 2011 – Cisco today announced that one of Poland’s most modern campus networks has been implemented in John Paul II Hospital in Krakow. The network infrastructure, built with Cisco® technology, provides high-bandwidth connectivity across the campus with speeds of up to 10 gigabits per second.

With 550 beds and 14 round-the-clock medical care units, including seven clinical departments, John Paul II Hospital is one of the largest health care institutions in Poland. The hospital complex, which is currently being enlarged, comprises 17 buildings spread over an area of 10 hectares. The hospital treats about 100 000 patients per year, of whom more than 20 000 are hospitalized.

The highly secure wired and wireless communication infrastructure functions as a platform for the clinical workflow and the hospital management system, helping to reduce the circulation of paper documents and optimize the handling of patients. The network also enables direct access to patient records, including high-quality diagnostic images such as X-ray, computer tomography, magnetic resonance and ultrasound as well as laboratory test results, anywhere on the hospital campus. The infrastructure also supports real-time audio and video. As a result, remote observers can view live surgical operations. The first video session supported by the campus infrastructure was transmitted directly from the operating theatre in December 2010 during the conference “Modern Techniques of Endoscopy in Diseases of the Lungs”.

John Paul II Hospital is also an important knowledge center and a medical hub for the Malopolska region in southern Poland. With the new network, consultations with other hospitals are becoming easier and transmissions of medical images are accelerated.

Key Facts / Highlights

• The centralized hospital management system enables access to patient records for all eligible employees of the hospital. Electronic authentication provides for the safety of medical data and helps eliminate manual errors. Additionally, the system enables staff to order medical tests, medicines and treatments, book patient rooms, and manage the demand for medical equipment.
• With the implementation of the new Cisco network, wireless Internet access is now available to patients and visitors in all wards and administrative buildings of the hospital.
• Because of the advanced audio- and video-ready infrastructure, participants in the conference “Modern Techniques of Endoscopy in Diseases of the Lungs”, organized by the hospital in December 2010, could watch the live broadcast of an endobronchial valve implantation and hear the comments of the doctors who performed the surgery.The connection was built using a local area network between a Cisco TelePresence® C90 video conferencing codec installed in the endoscopy laboratory, which was connected to two cameras (the first with the endoscopic image, the other with the picture of the operating room) and Cisco TelePresence System EX60 video conferencing terminals and a Cisco TelePresence Codec C60 placed in the conference room.
• This type of video transmission allows for instant access to high-definition pictures from the operating theatre. Thus, doctors located in other buildings can provide expert advice during an operation.
• The network backbone at John Paul II Hospital is based on Cisco Catalyst® 6509-E Switches, working in the Virtual Switching System (VSS) mode. The solution provides a high level of reliability and contributes to the simplicity of the configuration, as two devices create a virtual central switch. Access layer switches are the Cisco Catalyst 3750 and, for smaller buildings, the Cisco Catalyst 2960G. The wireless network is based on the Cisco 5508 controllers and Cisco Aironet® 1142 dual-band access points, used for standard 802.11a/g/n. In addition, the network is equipped with a monitoring and managing application, CiscoWorks LMS (LAN Management Solution).

Supporting Quotes:

• Anna Prokop-Staszecka, M.D., Ph.D., general manager at John Paul II Hospital in Krakow

“For more than 10 years, we have been consistently following an IT systems implementation strategy. Due to the critical role of the campus data network, which is the ‘blood circulation system’ of our IT, we were looking for solutions and technologies that would be open to new multimedia communications (text, voice, high-definition video), and Cisco has provided us with such a solution. In the coming year we plan to further develop the network and migrate to a unified communications system. We also plan the expansion of telemedicine services and cooperation with experts from outside the hospital using video conferencing technology.”

• Jerzy Wysocki, healthcare expert, Cisco Poland

“Providing modern and effective health care requires the use of the latest information and communication solutions. Thanks to these solutions, doctors can have full access to medical records, medical data and patient diagnostic information at any time and anywhere and, if necessary, can quickly consult with other specialists. In addition, hospitals can accurately monitor the patient care procedures, administer medicines, and automate settlements with the National Health Fund, resulting in reduced costs and improved effectiveness.”

Tags, Keywords:

John Paul II Hospital, Cisco, Poland, telemedicine

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Supporting resources:

• Cisco website
• Read more about Cisco Connected Health

About Cisco

Cisco, (NASDAQ:CSCO, news, filings), is the worldwide leader in networking that transforms how people connect, communicate and collaborate. Information about Cisco can be found at http://www.cisco.com. For ongoing news, please go to http://newsroom.cisco.com. Cisco equipment in Europe is provided by Cisco Systems International B.V. and Cisco International Limited, wholly owned subsidiaries of Cisco Systems, Inc.

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