Dubna-LaCrosse Partners Establish Video Link

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Partners in Dubna, Russia and LaCrosse, Wisconsin have worked on a range of health care issues in face-to-face meetings over the years, but the opportunity to meet via satellite has opened new doors for the partnership while saving time and money required by overseas travel.

Making use of an already-existing satellite dish near Dubna's International Humanities University, AIHA and VideoBridge International Corporation of Cambridge, Massachusetts have established a stationary videoconferencing unit allowing the Dubna partners to link up with colleagues at LaCrosse's Gundersen/Lutheran Hospital.

Since fall of 1996, the partners have conferenced regularly via satellite to address issues such as financial management, health system reform, womens' health and diabetes and alcoholism treatment. Two spring 1997 videoconferences, for example, brought together alcoholism counselors and city administrators from both sites to discuss the outcomes of Dubna's successful alcoholism treatment program.

Sandy McCormick, partnership coordinator and vice president of Gundersen/Lutheran Hospital, said she's learned some important lessons in making videoconferencing work: provide as much translation of materials as possible in advance of the conference; limit the conference to three hours; and provide adequate time for both groups to talk.

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