ASTRONOMY

The new MOU provides a pathway for the Internet2 and RNP communities to jointly lead and collaborate on the development of next-generation telemedicine and telehealth technologies and applications. In doing so, the organizations hope to accelerate the adoption of these important technologies both within the United States and Brazil as well as to promote and encourage the continued interconnection of advanced networks around the world in support of telemedicine and telehealth. “The global research and education community has long understood the potential for leveraging innovative network technology to significantly improve the quality of healthcare worldwide,” said Dr. Michael McGill, director of the Internet2 health sciences initiative. “Together, we hope our joint work with RNP will yield many new breakthroughs and collaborations in this very important field and serve as a model for our colleagues around the world.” RNP is today leading a new project called Rede Universitária de Telemedicina (RUTE) or the Telemedicine University Network. Funded by the Brazilian Ministry of Science and Technology, the project seeks to build and update the communication infrastructure of 57 university hospitals that are connected throughout Brazil with the goal of enabling all participating hospitals to use the RNP network to run telemedicine and telehealth applications, including video conferencing for information exchange, second opinion, continuous education and web conferencing. “Telehealth and Telemedicine public policies, research and education today in Brazil receive financial support and attention from federal Ministries: Health, Education, Science & Technology, Communication and Defense; but also from the Federal Medical Council,” said Luiz Ary Messina, RUTE´s national coordinator. “Scientific partnerships between American and Brazilian health institutions and universities have been newly identified, and researchers from both sides are already exchanging new ideas and projects to cooperate.” The new MOU builds on Internet2’s longstanding efforts in the international and health sciences arenas. To date, the organization has over 50 international partnerships and connects to over 70 international networks. Additionally, Internet2 members, including the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS), Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and the Ruth Lilly Health Education Center together with an additional 140 other connected healthcare organizations and medical schools, are actively working together to develop and deploy advanced Internet technologies in support of health sciences.