High tech facility helps WHS students

MICHAEL COONS/The Acorn LONG DISTANCE COMMUNICATION-Westlake High School students listen to a video conference about bio-ethics with a committee from Memorial Hermann Hospital in Houston, Texas at the Civic Arts Plaza in Thousand Oaks. Students and physicians communicated directly--visually and vocally.

Teleconference facility in T.O. enables learning

By Heather Milo

Acorn Staff Writer

Taking advantage of advanced technology offered through the Greater Thousand Oaks Telecommunity Center (GTOT), Westlake High School teacher Nancy Bowman’s honors advanced anatomy students particpated in a recent live, face-to-face teleconference—a simultaneous audio and video feed that enabled two parties to converse on camera in real time across incredible distances—with medical experts in Texas.

The Conejo Valley students could stay right where they were as they visited with experts at Houston’s Herman Memorial Hospital.

This is the second year that Bowman’s class has taken advantage of the Telecommunity Center in the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza. Bowman said the process went very smoothly. Her class walked into the room, sat down and Houston went live.

Wendell Hahm, GTOT executive director, said, "We just (turned it on and) walked away. We’ve gotten to the point where we use it like a Xerox machine."

GTOT is looking for other schools to share the technology. This past year, the center has used its teleconferencing ability not only for scientific needs, but also for art education in its mission to apply advanced technology to everyday use.

The recent WHS teleconference with Houston helped with research in preparation for a bioethics presentation at the end of the year on critical care issues. Goals of the project included learning how an ethics committee works in a major hospital, how members role-play to find answers to difficult cases, the details of subcommittee meetings and timeframes of making life and death decisions.

On the other end of the teleconference were members of the hospital’s bioethics committee, including a doctor, social worker Cindy Walker and Ginny Germillion, director of patient relations.

As part of their studies, the class is reading a book called "First Do No Harm," by Lisa Belkin, on the subject of bioethics. A number of patient studies in the book were based on patients in Houston, people that Walker dealt with firsthand. The students are each doing a project on a patient in the text.

"We enjoyed doing this last year, and we enjoyed doing it this year," Germillion said. "We appreciate the opportunity to talk about our committee."

Seniors Rachel Naylon, Ryan McGillivary and Luke Wilken, all 18, are students in Bowman’s class. According to Naylon, reading the text assigned the class wouldn’t have been nearly as effective without the chance to talk with the bioethics committee live, as the text was written 15 years ago and the teleconference enabled students to ask questions about how the hospital handles similar cases today.

McGillivary said that the teleconference will help students with their bioethics project, which they will present at the end of the year. "It gives us a good feel for bioethics," he said.

Wilken’s said that hearing from real medical professionals really made a difference.

The center also has the capacity to videotape the teleconferences for later replay.

GTOT’s equipment can also be connected live to a Cedar Sinai Hospital operating room. That ability was created at the hospital so that ships at sea could connect to Cedar Sinai in an emergency, allowing physicians to observe surguries in progress aboard ships.

The GTOT monitor gives students who want to be trauma doctors a similar way to observe without being obtrusive.

The center also conducts business meetings for those teleconferencing with people in places overseas. One business conference was at 2 a.m. because the meeting was set for 9 a.m. London time.