Perlman's system could bring great change to medical establishments. Nursing home patients, who often arrive exhausted after traveling long distances for fluoroscopy exams, could avoid tiring travel and the expense of an ambulance. People fighting other illnesses, or weakened from radiation treatments could receive expert medical assessments in their hometowns. Exams generally not offered at small and rural hospitals today—from assessments of swallowing functions to endoscopy, which evaluates structures such as the larynx, the esophagus, and the colon—could be easily available to patients who live hundreds or even thousands of miles from a major hospital. A person's zip code might no longer indicate the quality of medical care.

			Perlman has high hopes for the system and is continuing her work with NCSA to upgrade the computer interface, improve the quality of the video from MPEG-1 to MPEG-2, and design a sophisticated security system that guarantees patient confidentiality. Eventually Perlman hopes to create a dysphagia portal and databank that would give researchers, educators, and clinicians worldwide access to dysphagia data. She sees the portal developing as a virtual workspace for swallowing experts where they will be able to collaborate with colleagues, discuss unique cases, examine data from around the world, and follow specific cases for months or years.
	Patient with dysphagia in the process of swallowing. Some material is shown entering the patient's trachea (toward the front of the neck), while some enters the the esophagus (to the right of the trachea). Enlarge image.

"What we've done so far is prove that this system can work," she says. "It is a service to the community and could be developed as a grid-based medical application."

This research is supported by the NCSA/UIUC Faculty Fellows program.