COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. — Bassett Medical Center is expanding its digital medicine capabilities to include cardiovascular clinical services through an initiative with Columbia University’s Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons. Using digital technology, Bassett patients will have direct connections to cardiovascular specialists in Manhattan. The collaboration builds on the 90-year affiliation between the two organizations. “Our […]
COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. — Bassett Medical Center is expanding its digital medicine capabilities to include cardiovascular clinical services through an initiative with Columbia University’s Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons.
Using digital technology, Bassett patients will have direct connections to cardiovascular specialists in Manhattan. The collaboration builds on the 90-year affiliation between the two organizations.
“Our digital health strategies center on seamlessly connecting our patients in rural settings with world-class physicians, here on the Bassett campus and through our partnership with Columbia,” Dr. Tommy Ibrahim, Bassett’s president and CEO, said in a press release. “Bassett is committed to the ongoing expansion of our digital health capabilities into clinical services in cardiovascular care and beyond.”
Columbia physicians seeing Bassett patients from their offices downstate are assisted by nurses in Bassett exam rooms, including physical exams with the use of live video and an electronic stethoscope that allows the doctor to listen to the heart and lung sounds remotely.
Dr. Ibrahim; Dr. Michael Holmes, chief of cardiology at Bassett; Dr. Nick Homma, deputy chief of the cardiology division and chief medical officer at Columbia University Irving Medical Center; and Cheryl Gelder-Kogan, interim administrative director, cardiovascular service line at Bassett are guiding the expanding program.
The program, already underway, will expand to five days a week with doctors potentially alternating between clinical settings at both Bassett and Columbia.
Bassett Medical Center offers a three-year cardiovascular training program for medical students. Columbia-Bassett cardiac fellows spend up to two months a year doing rotations at Columbia to round out their experiences, specifically with advanced heart failure. Fellows are primarily based at Bassett with the opportunity to complete key rotations at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center.
Bassett Healthcare Network includes five corporately affiliated hospitals, community-based health centers, school-based health centers, skilled-nursing facilities, and other health partners.
