Clinical Video Use Cases In Higher Education
Higher education institutions have deployed clinical video solutions for years. Clinical video solutions are proven to help educators teach clinical skills and perform clinical research. Use cases for clinical video applications are commonly found in psychology, counseling, speech pathology/communicative disorders, occupational therapy, physical therapy, nursing, and behavioral health.
See how Penn State's Center for Educational Diagnosis and Remediation use video recording is a vital tool for training future counselors. View Case Studies
Typical Procurement Has Been Outside of Central IT
Historically, video solutions for these clinical applications were purchased at the department/school level. Rarely did decisions escalate to the level of the Chief Information Officer (CIO). The primary reasons for this are:
- Most video solutions users and use cases were department-specific and not an enterprise-wide application that would be shared across the university.
- The infrastructure required for these systems was often analog-based technology confined to specific rooms/floors in specific buildings. Analogue systems were also typically not shared across departmental/school boundaries.
Problems Due To Lack of IT Governance
Because of the reasons above there was no need to elevate decision making to a central IT group responsible for governance of shared applications and shared infrastructure. However, since these applications have been left isolated without central governance from IT, it created several problems for many Universities. These problems include:
- Disparate Infrastructure– Because decision making has been left to independent departments/schools, which often do not communicate, there is a lack of standards with which equipment was purchased. This creates a support and integration problem for many IT teams.
- Failed Deployments and Cost Overruns– There are numerous universities that deployed video solutions for specific departments, investing hundreds of thousands of dollars in a solution, only to realize that the technology is completely unusable by the end user and at the same time unsupportable by IT. The result is that universities must replace the technology sooner and shorten the life cycle of the investment. This of course leads to increased costs.
- Unsecured Patient Data– In almost all cases video solutions are deployed in actual clinics run by the university, so the data captured and managed is highly sensitive patient data, which is protected by law (HIPAA privacy rule). This creates significant risk and exposure to the university if these systems are deployed on an ad hoc basis and not properly managed and deployed using IT best practices and standards.
- Wasted Resources- When technology cannot be shared across multiple departments, resources to improve other assets are wasted. A platform that has the flexibility to serve many use cases and workflows frees up budget to other areas and benefits the organization.
Opportunity and Benefits for a Standard Clinical Video Platform
With VALT from Intelligent Video Solutions central IT can get in front of these issues, which minimizes costs and risks while providing an easy-to-use platform for users dispersed in different departments throughout their university. VALT provides the following benefits:
- Standardized Hardware– VALT leverages industry standard Axis IP cameras. This equipment is adaptable to different types of applications yet provides a standard for IT to manage across the common university network.
- Proven Clinical Video Observation & Recording Solution– VALT is built from the ground up specifically for clinical based applications. VALT is deployed successfully across North America in many leading universities for numerous clinical applications. VALT is quickly and easily deployed and adapted by the user base.
- Multi-layer Security for Best Practice Implementations– VALT provides numerous technologies to help universities secure critical patient data. These technologies include full encryption of video and data, Full LDAP(S) integration, extensive user permissions which restrict users access to content and application features, access control, containers which isolate and separate departments/schools on their own virtual software instance, and a robust audit tracking log.
- Lower Total Costs of Ownership – With VALT, departments leverage shared infrastructure and licensing agreements that reduce acquisition and ongoing support and maintenance costs over the solution lifecycle.
Scalability and Centralized Infrastructure - Up to 50 IP based cameras may be used with one VALT server, which allows multiple departments to use a centralized system, reduces potential points of failure, and supports central management by the IT team.
Summary
Skills-based learning and clinical research continues to grow in higher education. This growth leads to additional use cases for video observation and recording. Without a technology standard and strategy this growth creates cost and risk issues for the university and their IT teams who are required to deploy and manage disparate systems. Intelligent Video Solutions and VALT offers significant opportunity for the university CIO to provide their university with a single platform that addresses the needs of their clinical users, controls cost, and minimizes risk.
For more information on VALT please visit the IVS website at https://www.ipivs.com/products/valt-software.
Learn more on how video techonology is an I.T. procurment at organizations by reading our online guide below.
WHY I.T. SHOULD LEAD VIDEO SYSTEM DEPLOYMENTS