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Virtual tours available of new Escondido hospital
Online option lets people go through patient experience
By ANDREA MOSS - Staff Writer | ∞
Chief Technical Innovation Technology Orando Portale talks about virtual-world platform called Second Life. ESCONDIDO ---- People wondering how it will look inside the corridors, operating rooms and ambulance bays of a new hospital under construction in western Escondido can use an online virtual tour to get an early peek.
Palomar Pomerado Health broke ground last fall on Palomar Medical Center West. Until it opens in late 2011, curious area residents can explore a simulated version of the medical center created by the public hospital district and Cisco Systems Inc.
Built in a virtual, three-dimensional world known as "Second Life" on the World Wide Web, the simulation is already being heavily used by health-care industry insiders who want to see how futuristic technology is being incorporated into the new medical center.
Members of the public can take the virtual tour if they download the necessary software and go through a quick and free registration process with Second Life.
The virtual tour can be found virtualpalomarwest.org. Go to http://youtube.com/watch?v=KMtMWdlX9Z8&feature=related to watch a related YouTube video.
Once inside, visitors can talk to and interact with each other via avatars, or digital versions of themselves.
Orlando Portale, chief technology and innovation officer for the hospital district, said Tuesday that he has encountered people from all over the world inside the virtual hospital.
"I was in a couple weeks ago, and I saw there was a group of people (who) were medical students from Duke University," he said. "Their professor had heard about this somewhere, and he assigned the tour as a class project. They were supposed to tour the hospital and then report what they thought of it."
Described by Portale as "the next generation of the Web," Second Life is a company that started out "selling" land in its three-dimensional, online world to companies that wanted to test market their products or use the technology for other research purposes. Visitors to Second Life can navigate around the virtual world using arrow keys on their computer keyboards.
Other entities have gradually become aware of Second Life's usefulness as a research tool and ventured into the virtual world.
"Anything that you can build in the real world, you can build in this virtual world," Portale said.
The Second Life version of Palomar Medical Center West is set on an island, something he said will enable the district to expand the campus in the future and control who or what goes in around the hospital in the virtual world. Visitors to the virtual medical center can fly around it to get a bird's eye view.
People can also walk inside the facility and register as a patient, then experience a virtual gall bladder surgery. Doing so lets each "patient" see what his or her room will look like and learn how new health care technology will make life easier, more efficient and more pleasant for patients, medical personnel and other hospital staff members.
Futuristic features highlighted in the simulation include the ability to adjust the room's lighting, order meals, and view one's medical records. There are also three-dimensional, holographic scans of one's body on a large, high-definition screen on the wall, all via a bedside control panel.
"You really empower the patient so they have the ability to control the environment in their room," Portale said. "And research has shown that leads to a better patient experience, quicker recovery and a lot of other benefits."
Other examples include robotic surgery, a teleconferencing system that lets physicians and medical students in other countries consult on or watch a procedure, and a radio-frequency identification system that helps the hospital keep track of patients.
The high-tech emphasis dovetails with Palomar Pomerado's push to build "the hospital of the future." That slogan has been used to describe the new hospital from its conception about five years ago.
The facility also is part of the Center for Health Design's three-year Pebble Project, a research program which offers examples of how a hospital's design can improve health care and provide other benefits.
"If we're going to be innovative, we're going to have to embrace those technologies and we're going to have to bring those technologies into the organization," Portale said.
Hospital district spokesman Andy Hoang said the virtual tour is just one more example of that effort.
Contact staff writer Andrea Moss at (760) 739-6654 or amoss@nctimes.com. Comment at nctimes.com.
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EscoWatch wrote on Mar 26, 2008 9:47 PM:They show really nice presentations of what they're planning on doing for us downtown, but we'll never see that either!
Just PR wrote on Mar 26, 2008 9:55 PM:The PPH PR Department must be working overtime. It seems that they wrote this and the NCT reporter just printed it verbatim for them. Looks like damage control for yesterday's report about Covert's raise and big bonus. Give me a break.
To Just PR wrote on Mar 26, 2008 11:52 PM:Good point. Did you happen to notice the article on Covert's raise and bonus sort of disappeared on the NTC site? It wasn't there long enough for comments to be posted. Why???
Fool on the Hill wrote on Mar 27, 2008 3:18 AM:This 'virtual tour' is like 'conceptual art.' You know from the git-go that it can't 'actually' be done so you give the description and allow the mind to create what will never actually be created. It's a mind game using BB funds. I'll bet the oversight committee eats it up, not to mention the mayor's personally selected ad hoc committee. There is no virtue in this virtual tour. Get back on the bus; there is nothing to see here.
downtowncesspit wrote on Mar 27, 2008 8:36 AM:who cares about downtown? its just check cashing, laundry, tattoo parlors. the west side is our future. the life blood of the town.
Downtown Virtual Tour wrote on Mar 27, 2008 10:36 AM:I just cannot wait for the Second Life simulation of the Downtown Medical Village promised by PPH.
To downtowncesspit wrote on Mar 27, 2008 10:40 AM:You make our point. That is why it was so important the PPH commit to staying and upgrading their downtown site. This can jumpstart revitalization in that area. Unfortunately, PPH can't be trusted to follow through on their commitments.
Limited PR Tour wrote on Mar 27, 2008 10:42 AM:I took the tour. I would call it a guided tour because only a few areas and rooms are open for access. The hospital rooms are really big. No wonder this hospital is so expensive. The presentations were definitely part of a PR campaign. I doubt any of the futuristic demonstrations will be implemented. Sort of like the house of the future that used to be at the entrance to Tomorrowland.
Out of money wrote on Mar 27, 2008 4:54 PM:If you don't have the money to build it, just create it on the computer!
Orlando wrote on Mar 28, 2008 5:10 PM:You guys are so stuck in extreme cynicism that nothing would impact your impression of PPH, regardless of its value. Perhaps Escondido was the wrong place to build a new state of the art -- Poway, San Marcos, anywhere else would have been a better pick. Less of a redneck mentality there...
Go For It Orlando wrote on Mar 29, 2008 12:31 PM:The San Marcos site made good sense, so long as the existing Palomar Medical Center remained as an acute care hospital. Too bad San Marcos wanted too many infrastructure improvements that the PPH Board did not want to pay for. If you have not noticed, PPH already has a hospital in Poway. The site is too small for a hospital much larger that about 300,000 square feet. So Orlando, quit being so critical when PPH's PR gimicks fall flat with the residents paying for this boondoogle. PPH said they would finish what you call a "state of the art" hospital by 2009. www.nctimes.com/articles/2004/07/13/news/top_stories/7_11_147_12_04.txt Pardon me for not falling for any more of PPH's PR stunts like this Second Life simulation.
To Orlando wrote on Mar 30, 2008 3:18 AM:All Escondido wants is what they were promised. If they (PPH) went to San Marcos they (San Marcos) would up set because they would have broken their promises there. Orlando, DOCTORS save lives not the PPH boards broken promises
Covert wrote on Mar 30, 2008 3:32 PM:No promises were broken in escondido, situations change...plans need to change accordingly...
pph employee wrote on Mar 30, 2008 6:08 PM:there are many broken promises. i just dont understand how management officials with pph still have their jobs. many employees besides me are not happy with management. pph has no money for departments. no overtime allowed. cannot buy new equipment. this organization is totally mismanaged. PR is right. they are going to be on damage control regarding coverts huge raise. they have an awful lot of explaining to do. thar that bonus he got just angerd employees.
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