UCIrvine School of Medicine and the University of New England in rural Armidale, Australia, has started an international collaboration to bring innovative technologies such as the iPad, ultrasound and telemedicine to the students and faculty of the two medical school campuses separated by a geographic distance of almost 7,500 miles. Through this collaboration, state-of-the-art broadband videoconferencing capabilities has allowed medical students at UNE to develop their  skills of ultrasonography through interactive distance learning sessions led by UCIrvine’s Dr. Chris Fox, Director of Instructional Ultrasound and Professor of Clinical Emergency Medicine, while UCIrvine faculty have learned about the benefits and implementation of telemedicine technology from the experienced faculty of UNE. Future collaborations will expand the scope and depth of the learning exchange between the two schools from both the clinical and educational perspectives.

The most recent telemedicine teaching session with UNE Australia occurred on the evening of November 12, 2012. Dr. Chris Fox, Dr. Shahram Lotfipour, Stacy Hata and UNE exchange student Sam Phillips, who has spent the past seven weeks studying with Dr. Fox in an ultrasound elective, successfully demonstrated the ultrasound windows into the heart and spleen for a captive audience in Armidale. The session began with Dr. Fox guiding Sam through the ultrasound windows at UCIrvine with live ultrasound images from the UCIrvine transducer presented to UNE. This was followed by a student at UNE attempting to achieve the same windows on a model in Armidale while Dr. Fox provided telementoring to the UNE student. This session was just the latest in a series of teleultrasound sessions pioneering the remote hands-on teaching of ultrasonography skills. UCIrvine looks forward to the continued partnership with UNE Australia and the cutting-edge opportunities that the two medical schools will share.