(Greenville, N.C.) Technology has revolutionized how individuals manage chronic diseases, empowering patients to monitor important health indicators in the comfort of their own homes. Where once patients might have waited days, or even weeks, to learn test results, telemedicine is helping to streamline this and many other medical processes.

Telemedicine encompasses the secure electronic exchange of medical information through video-conferencing, transmission of still images such as X-rays or MRI scans, remote monitoring of vital signs, and websites designed to assist patients in managing their health. This electronic exchange of information benefits patients greatly by reducing travel time, and expense, to and from medical facilities, lessening wait time for test results, and providing patients with access to healthcare providers they might not otherwise be able to see.

At East Carolina University in Greenville, the Telemedicine Center has been in continuous operation since 1992, making it one of the longest running clinical telemedicine operations in the world. The Center provides clinical telemedicine services, conducts telemedicine research, and educates health care providers and the public about telemedicine.

The University is involved in the Golden Leaf Foundation’s “Eastern North Carolina Telehealth Network” project to leverage the Telemedicine Center’s extensive experience establish four new telemedicine sites in medically-underserved rural communities in Eastern North Carolina. These include HealthEast Family Care, a physician practice located on the Outer Banks of North Carolina in the village of Avon; Pungo District Hospital, a private, non-profit 49-bed acute care community hospital located on the Belhaven waterfront; Goshen Medical Center in Faison; and Tillery Community Center, located in one of the poorest counties (Halifax) of North Carolina.

The Telehealth Network project is supported via a $350,000 grant from the Golden Leaf Foundation, with funds being used to procure a standard equipment set for each of the sites including videoconferencing equipment (codecs, cameras, cart, and monitor) and telemedicine peripherals (otoscope, dermatoscope, electronic stethoscope, and general examination camera). The grant also provides high-speed telecommunications and approximately 25 percent of a nurses salary at each of the four involved partner sites for two years.

Aside from major health initiatives like Telehealth, more and more companies have been developing home health care devices to monitor some of the most common chronic diseases individuals face.

One of the most common chronic ailments, high blood pressure affects nearly a third of all Americans older than 20, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Untreated high blood pressure puts you at increased risk of stroke, heart attack, heart disease, heart failure and kidney disease. Called “the silent killer” because it causes few symptoms, hypertension once required regular visits to a doctor’s office for monitoring and treatment. Now, easy-to-use home monitors allow people with hypertension to check their blood pressure every day.

A leading cause of kidney failure, blindness, amputations, heart disease and stroke, diabetes affects nearly 24 million Americans, about 25 percent of whom don’t even know they have it, according to the CDC. Diabetes can be controlled with medication and diet, but sufferers must continuously monitor their blood sugar levels.

Before the advent of home diabetes monitors, people living with the disease could only monitor it through blood tests administered in their doctor’s office. Now, a simple finger prick once a day using a home monitor allows diabetes sufferers to keep track of their blood sugar levels in the comfort of their own homes.

COPD is the fourth leading cause of death in the United States, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. With 12 million people currently diagnosed, and 12 million people suffering unaware, COPD is known as the “silent killer” due to the gradual onset of symptoms that allow it to go undetected until serious complications arise.

Because COPD blocks the airways, sufferers need to regularly monitor their blood oxygen levels. A hospital device that clips on an individual’s finger called a pulse oximeter has been adapted for home use, allowing COPD patients, and people suffering from other chronic respiratory diseases, to easily self-monitor their blood oxygen and heart rate levels at home.

More consumer information about home health care can be found online at the National Association for Home Care and Hospice website, http://www.nahc.org/.