Doctors at El Camino Hospital were the first anywhere to use computers to enter orders for the treatment of patients in 1971, and we have been at the forefront of using technology to improve patient care ever since.

In 2008 we took a new step forward in how we innovate using technology by establishing the Center for Technology Integration (CTI). CTI helps us innovate in several ways:

• The pace of change in medical technology continues to accelerate. CTI constantly scans the horizon looking for new technologies, new inventions and new ways of using established technologies.
• CTI works internally at the hospital to make sure that all departments work in concert to identify and acquire the medical technologies that deliver the most advanced care.
• CTI identifies new technologies, companies and opportunities for partnership that enable El Camino Hospital to bring new technologies to the hospital and to our physicians.

Spotlight on technology

In our Cancer Center, medical director Shyamali Singal, MD, was excited about the opportunity to use technology to establish a virtual tumor review board.

Tumor review boards are recognized as an essential part of excellence in cancer care. They bring together a range of medical disciplines for direct discussions on the best course of care for patients who have cancer. Since most cancers can be treated in different ways, reaching consensus about care management offers improved opportunities for remission or cure.

A virtual tumor review board enables this kind of frank and lively discussion among physicians at different hospitals in different parts of California. Using Sony high-definition video cameras delivering images over a high-speed network, each site is equipped with advanced videoconferencing equipment so a presenting physician's image and voice can be projected along with images--pathology slides or radiological scans--that show a patient's cancer.

Both the high definition images and sound are transmitted through encrypted Web-based technology, insuring that patient records are secure and that images are the best possible quality.