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A baby's heart is examined through RNP's network

A fetus's little heart could move a lot of adult hearts in three different states. On August 3rd, in the afternoon,doctors in Recife, Natal and Fortaleza as well as the people participating in the XXI Congress of the Brazilian Computing Society (XXI Congresso da Sociedade Brasileira de Computação)watched the transmission of a prenatal exam made in Recife.

This exam is called fetal ecocardiography, and it is important in the diagnosis of malformations and disturbances in the cardiovascular system during intrauterine life, permitting the correction of problems in the child's heart still in the prenatal period. RNP configurated a line of 10 Mbps joining the three cities just for this experiment to be carried out.

The fetal ecocardiography was made in Real Hospital Português de Beneficiência em Pernambuco and transmitted in real time to Natal and Fortaleza, where specialists participated with the help of a telediagnosis tool. The tools used for the transmission and telediagnosis were developed, respectively, by the High Performance Metropolitan Networks (ReMAVs) in Natal and Recife.

Joint effort

In order to assemble the infrastructure used in the project, a lot of people contributed: RNP's Engineering and Operation Center, the ReMAVs in Recife, Natal and Fortaleza, and RNP's Points of Presence (PoPs) in the three cities.

This joint effort should become more and more common, joining other ReMAVs and other PoPs with the aim of developing projects for high performance networks in Brazil. The first event of this kind happened in May, involving the University TV in Natal and TV Cultura in Florianópolis (see the article in RNP's site - Television broadcast between the Northeast and the South of Brazil is made through an RNP network ).

A great step to medicine

Professor Magdala Novaes, from the Laboratory of Immunopathology Keizo Asami, in the Federal University of Pernambuco, declared to the site Pernambuco.com that this experiment represents a great step in medicine towards helping poor communities. Telemedicine permits distance diagnosis and, in some cases, even treatment, making it easier for the population to have access to medical care. "The cost reduction and the agility of the process are amazing", claimed the professor.

After the experience on August 3rd, new sessions were already being scheduled by the doctors. RNP has decided to extend the length of the maintenance of the 10 Mbps line so that new exams can be made and discussed.

According to professor Guido Lemos, coordinator of the ReMAV in Natal and one of the organizers of the experiment, the doctors had a very good impression. "People here in Natal want to discuss three open cases; the doctors in Fortaleza also have some complicated cases in terms of diagnosis that they would like to solve together", said Lemos.

Researchers in other states have also shown interest in the project carried out in the Northeast of Brazil.

[RNP, 08.17.2001]