Santa Barbara, CA, July 20, 2010 - InTouch Health® announced today the release of the RP-Vantage™ surgical telementoring system, an FDA-cleared device that broadens the Company’s comprehensive suite of Remote Presence products. RP-Vantage combines InTouch Health’s core Remote Presence technology with multiple camera “vantage points” tailored for surgical telementoring and remote procedure collaboration in operating and procedure rooms.
RP-Vantage becomes the flagship offering for the Company’s Healthcare Enterprises business unit which provides Remote Presence solutions for medical device companies to support medical education, product development, clinical study monitoring, training, and marketing initiatives.
The design and features of RP-Vantage were developed from a series of studies where a Remote Presence device was used in general, orthopedic, urologic and cardiovascular surgeries as a tool for surgical telementoring and collaboration. With RP-Vantage a remote surgeon can avoid the time, cost and inconvenience of travel and be “virtually” present to train and collaborate with on-site surgeons. RP-Vantage will accelerate the adoption of innovative medical devices and procedures in a safe manner and drive improved clinical outcomes.
“Proctoring and training surgeons and interventional cardiologists on new and complex techniques, especially in the field of transcatheter heart valves, is an emerging area of need,” remarked Dr. Michael Mack, Director of Cardiovascular Research and Cardiovascular Medicine at The Heart Hospital Baylor Plano, who participated in the clinical validation for RP-Vantage. “Currently, there are significant challenges and constraints involving proctors and trainers traveling to distant locations to conduct in-person training. Technologies like RP-Vantage offer tremendous promise in enabling experienced surgeons and cardiologists to mentor learning heart teams on new techniques, as well as collaborate on complex cases without the overhead costs and related challenges of scheduling and travel.” Dr. Mack continued, “This may ultimately allow more frequent interaction of proctors and trainees leading to quicker advancement up the learning curve, and thereby improving the quality of care and patient safety.”
“We are excited to launch RP-Vantage and look forward to working closely with medical device companies and their key surgeon opinion leaders to leverage this paradigm shifting technology to address the time and distance barriers, inefficiencies and costs of traditional models of surgeon education and training,” commented Charlie Huiner, Vice President of Healthcare Enterprises at InTouch Health. “We believe the use of RP-Vantage to complement existing surgeon training and medical education programs will be the first of many value-added use cases developed in our Healthcare Enterprises business unit around Remote Presence.”
More information about RP-Vantage can be found at www.intouchhealth.com/products_rp-vantage.html
About InTouch Health
InTouch Health provides comprehensive telemedicine solutions that enable physicians to perform real-time consults with hospital patients. Through a single interface, physicians can access a host of FDA-cleared Remote Presence devices to provide and document care into emergency rooms, critical care units, patient wards and operating rooms. Wherever access to medical expertise is limited, InTouch Health’s Remote Presence telemedicine solutions can effectively extend the physician’s reach to manage patient care, thereby removing critical time and distance barriers.
The Company has more than 300 hospital locations on six continents using Remote Presence to deliver specialty care services such as stroke, critical care coverage, cardiology, trauma, pediatrics, neonatology, psychiatry, patient rounds, translation services, clinical education and surgical/procedure mentoring.
