​Dr. Peter “Pete” Killcommons is a medical doctor who is founder and CEO of MedWeb, a company that specializes in providing medical imaging, teleradiology, and telemedicine services. Due to his expertise in telemedicine, Dr. Peter Killcommons was invited as a keynote presenter at the First Armenian International Telemedicine Congress in October 2011.

The emergence of telemedicine has been brought about by the increasing number of technological advancements in the medical field. For example, telemedicine allows medical information to be exchanged across great distances through electronic communication. Even if the technology is already at least 40 years old, telemedicine continues to be a fast-growing field likely to be utilized on a much wider scale in coming decades.

There are a number of reasons why using telemedicine could be of advantage to patients. Foremost is its ability to connect patients with specialized services and relevant information that might otherwise by unavailable. The chance of miscommunication due to mediated communication is also mitigated, as the patient can talk directly to the specialist. During a telemedicine consultation, the specialist can also benefit from being able to assess a client personally, making diagnosis and treatment more accurate and effective.

In 1992, Peter Killcommons, MD, founded WebMed, a firm that develops web-enabled telemedicine devices, in San Francisco. Before the advent of telemedicine, patients whose diagnosis or treatment required the involvement of a specialist generally had to be transported to the specialist, often requiring a significant expenditure of time and money. Telemedicine, using high-tech communication and imaging capabilities to enable real-time, long-distance collaboration on patient diagnosis and treatment, provides a shortcut. A dramatic example is a surgeon being guided in real time by a specialist hundreds or thousands of miles away, facilitated by live streaming video of the surgical procedure. Dr. Peter Killcommons continues his leadership in the field of telemedicine today, working closely with the U.S. military to ensure that its medical staff has the most reliable telemedicine equipment.

WebMed is very active philanthropically in supplying telemedical devices to practitioners worldwide, especially to support disaster recovery efforts. Immediately after Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans in 2005, WebMed provided several devices for use at Touro Hospital and aboard the U.S. Navy hospital ship Comfort. In addition, it sent two servers and related WebMed equipment to the 240-bed Medishare tent hospital set up by the University of Miami at the airport in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, following the devastating 2010 earthquake.                 ​

​In October 2011, I had the privilege of addressing the First Armenian International Telemedicine Congress in Yerevan, Armenia. My lecture focused on the philanthropic work of my company, Medweb, in helping hospitals in Jalalabad, Afghanistan, develop networking technology.

What is telemedicine? This rapidly growing field has several applications, but what they have in common is delivery of medical information and services via electronic links. Research indicates that some 50 subspecialties benefit from telemedicine. One common use is emailing diagnostic data, such as ultrasound or MRI readings, to specialists, who interpret the results. Telemedicine also can include real-time remote patient consultations. Furthermore, certain devices allow remote patient monitoring to transmit vital signs to healthcare providers. For example, the Veterans Administration provides mobile devices that relay data from scales or blood pressure cuffs; this system lowers costs for treating patients who do not need nursing home care. Additionally, it can be used in place of home visits from nurses. Telemedicine also encompasses online continuing education or information platforms for medical professionals.

About the Author: Dr. Peter Killcommons is the chief executive officer and founder of Medweb, a firm specializing in the development of telemedicine devices and platforms. Dr. Kilcommons heads the company’s Telemedicine, Radiology, and Disaster Response departments.

​Operation Smile is an international charity organization that changes the lives of children with facial deformities in underdeveloped parts of the world. I have volunteered with Operation Smile, providing medical image transfer services for one of their clinics.

A facial cleft is a fairly common congenital deformity that can be surgically corrected during infancy. Unfortunately, many children are born with clefts in parts of the world where professional medical resources are scarce, and their families cannot afford corrective surgery. These children endure difficulty eating their food, speaking, and smiling. In many places, these children can also be treated as outcasts. Operation Smile provides these children with access to facial surgery so that they can smile, eat, and socialize with their friends and family. Operation Smile operates in over 60 countries, and has performed over 200,000 free surgeries to date.

About the Author: Dr. Peter Killcommons is a telemedicine expert and philanthropist. In addition to his work with Operation Smile, he has donated equipment and provided medical services in countries around the world, including Afghanistan and Armenia.