Author: Juliellen Simpson-Vos, M.Ed
On Wednesday, August 2nd at 8:00 p.m. in the United States, Dr. Alexander and Juliellen met via video conference with the Child Development Unit (CDU) at the Royal Children's Hospital in Queensland, Australia. It was 10:00 in the morning (of the next day!) in Australia. The purpose of the conference was to share the history of and resources involved in these similar and innovative projects.
The CDU of Queensland has been operating a video conference professional education program since 2001, which has grown steadily over the past five years. The goal of the program was to create a best practice, service delivery model for professional education intended for child development and early intervention professionals throughout Australia. The program has been quite successful in reaching a variety of professionals at great distances. There are now 22 sites participating in the program with many of them taking on leaderships roles in leading and facilitating case presentations to other child development teams.
The TelAbility/WATCH Program has a similar goal to connect EI professionals within Wake County to other professionals and with educational resources. Using video conferencing for video clinics and consultation purposes is a beneficial addition to our program.
TelAbility/WATCH and the CDU in Queensland intend to continue to network and share challenges and successes in order to strengthen both programs. Perhaps we can also hold a video conference training session for WATCH Members led by one of the CDU team!
For more information about the program offered by the CDU you can look in the Journal of Telemedicine and Telecare 2002; 8. (Suppl. 3) S3:19-21 or Journal of Telemedicine and Telecare 2005; 11 (Suppl. 2): S2 1-3.
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