Joint Telemedicine Network eyed for mental health services

Lt. Gen. Eric Schoomaker, the Army surgeon general, wants to use technology to help deployed soldiers deal with combat stress, the invisible wound of war, and the team that developed the Army's Joint Telemedicine Network in Afghanistan and Iraq believes it has the system to do the job.

The Army must find ways to use technology to deliver diagnostic and therapeutic resources to its soldiers in remote locations to manage behavioral health problems, Schoomaker said at a Nov. 13 news briefing on the mental health of deployed troops.

Maj. Dan Bridon, director of command, control and communications for the 30th Theater Medical Command at Bagram Air Force Base in Afghanistan, told Nextgov that he already has tested the Joint Telemedicine Network for remote psychological consultation services.

The Army developed the network to transmit broadband digital X-ray images for sick or injured soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan to the Landstuhl Army Medical Center in Germany and stateside hospitals. At some locations, the team also installed videoconferencing equipment developed by the technology company Tandberg ASA of Norway. Bridon said videoconferencing could be the key component of remote behavioral health services.

Behavioral health specialists work at large Army hospitals in Iraq, but Bridon said expanding the telemedicine network would allow them to provide counseling to patients at smaller field hospitals.

In testing the system, an Army psychologist in Afghanistan used the videoconferencing gear to monitor and assess body movement and facial gestures of a patient in the field. Bridon said the psychologist could hear and see the patient well enough to make a behavioral health assessment.

The Defense Communications and Army Transmission Systems

Office, which developed the Joint Telemedicine Network, also tested the network and equipment for evaluating patients' mental health. Salvatore Granata, Southwest Asia project manager for the office, said he is excited about the possibility of using the network to provide behavioral services from stateside and deployed specialists.

Retired Army Lt. Col. Alfred Hamilton, who helped develop the Joint Telemedicine Network, said the system provides the framework for future telemental health projects. The videoconferencing gear and broadband network stream high-fidelity images that rival a broadcast television football game, Hamilton said. Without the jerkiness associated with webcasts, a behavioral health specialist can accurately assess a patient's body language remotely, he added.

Only the largest military hospitals in Afghanistan, such as those at Bagram and in Kandahar, are equipped with the videoconferencing gear. But Bridon said smaller, more remote medical facilities need the technology as well to expand access for soldiers in the field.

The Joint Telemedicine Network can help Army mental health providers overcome the "tyranny of distance," Bridon said. As winter starts to grip the country and make travel by air or road more difficult, it makes sense to use technology to connect soldiers and mental health care providers, he noted.