Page 56 - Managing the Mobile Workforce

discovering a new workforce paradigm � 35

to 50 years from now. Telemedicine, according to the American Tele-
medicine Association, is “the use of medical information exchanged
from one site to another via electronic communications to improve
patients’ health status.” The potential—as technology and our abil-
9
ity to use it improves—for this kind of mobile work is unfathomable.
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Is There a Hologram in the House?
One of our grand challenges at TATRC [Telemedicine and
Advanced Technology Research Center] is to develop the
roadmaps for a “holographic doctor” when a human atten-
dant is not available, and for just-in-time training and guid-
ance to a human when a physician is not available.
—2009 Annual Report, TATRC

As an example, suppose that Jake has been seriously injured on the
battlefield and desperately needs expert diagnosis; then, quite pos-
sibly, complicated and immediate surgery is necessary. Yet he is two
continents away from the surgeon who can conduct the operation.
That is one of the challenges the Telemedicine and Advanced Tech-
nology Research Center (TATRC) is dedicated to solving.
TATRC is part of the U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel
Command. Its initiatives are wide ranging, and include the “Hospi-
tal of the Future,” creating a virtual human advisor, medical robotics
(such as a neck and spinal injury assessment device), simulation and
training technology (such as a simulation-based open surgery training
system), and a project to use cell phones for electronic disease surveil-
lance. Another of the many examples of TATRC’s cutting-edge work
is the teleconsultation program the U.S. Army started for deployed
forces in 2004. Since then, using Internet access and personal digi-
tal cameras, they have completed 5,700 consultations, giving timely