Overview
LSU Health Shreveport operates a number of mobile mammography vehicles in medically underserved North Louisiana. Due to a lack of cellular network coverage, the vehicles have long battled with connectivity issues.
LSU Health sought a solution with a robust and failsafe connection for their live-saving deployments. Peplink helps them achieve this and more with ease.
Requirements
- stay online in rural areas with poor cellular coverage
- to send ~600mb files without interruption
- always-on connection to university network and databases support multiple computers and devices on-board
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Solutions**
Pepwave MAX HD2](http://www.peplink.com/products/max-cellular-router/pepwave-max-hd-series/)
Pepwave MAX BR1](http://www.peplink.com/products/max-cellular-router/pepwave-max-br-series/)
Peplink Balance 580](http://www.peplink.com/products/balance/)
SpeedFusion Unbreakable VPN](http://www.peplink.com/technology/unbreakable-vpn/)
Benefits
- 600mb file now takes just 4 minutes to upload, down from 10 minutes
- Upload speeds of up to 22Mbps in rural areas as long as there is coverage from at least one carrier, file transfers are not interrupted
- likewise, VoIP calls do not drop
- connects directly with university network, allowing access to patient database and the picture archiving and communications system (PACS)
- ability to further strengthen network when there is useable Wi-Fi signals in range, or available broadband networks
- extensive wired and wireless LAN network on board supporting PCs, printers, iPads, smartphones and VoIP phones
Peplink’s Unbreakable Cellular Links Enable Rural Mammograms
“…with multiple embedded cellular devices, bonding the signals to effect higher bandwidths., this allows us to send digital images from remote locations that typically have poor (cellular) coverage.”
- LSU Mobile Mammography
Bringing Life-Saving Mammograms to Underserved Women
LSU Health Shreveport operates mobile mammography vehicles as part of their health outreach service. A big difficulty is communicating from these mobile life-savers to the university back at Shreveport, an essential part of the cancer screening process.
The areas served are rural and remote, with poor cellular coverage. Effectively transmitting medical images back to the university is especially challenging in this environment.
When lives depend on timely diagnosis, the connection between the mammography vehicle and the university must be fast and unbreakable. Faced with this challenge, LSU Health called Peplink partner Peter West and asked for a solution.
Meeting the Challenges of Delivering Rural Cancer Screening
Peter designed and implemented a mobile communications system capable of transmitting images and essential data using Peplink and Pepwave devices.
One mammography vehicle is equipped with a MAX HD4 and the second is equipped with 2 MAX BR1s and a MAX HD2. The vehicles can then form unbreakable VPN connections with the Balance 580 at the university and bond the bandwidths of the 4 cellular connections. With this setup, the vehicles can remotely access vital information, such as patient registration and databases, as well as seamlessly communicate using VoIP.
Most importantly, the vehicles can reliably send X-rays and 600Mb 3D tomographic images back to the university’s Picture Archiving and Communications (PAC) system.
This is possible using Pepwave routers to bond cellular connections from multiple providers, delivering maximum bandwidth and stability in areas where cellular coverage is poor. And when they’re lucky enough to work in areas with Wi-Fi, the MAX’s Wi-Fi as WAN feature provides the vehicles with equally reliable access.
Saving Lives with the Help of Peplink Technology
By enabling mobile mammography teams to reliably communicate with the university, Peplink / Pepwave helps LSU Health save lives throughout North Louisiana. And we are extremely proud of that.
LSU Health vehicles now serve 30 parish communities in rural North Louisiana.
Previously underserved, these areas now receive state-of-the-art care.
“(The Staunch team) has gone far beyond expectations to help us plan and implement our systems in a timely manner. He has been instrumental with helping us keep up with advancing technology to get the best communications performance feasible in our difficult rural environments”
-Jerry McLarty, PhD Professor of Medicine. Director of Cancer Prevention and Control at Feist-Weiller Cancer Center, LSU Health Sciences Center
Special thanks to the Staunch team for making this happen.
