BELL CANADA TESTS MPLS IN LIFE-AND-DEATH APPLICATION

Using the Internet isn't exactly brain surgery. But using the Internet for brain surgery is becoming a distinct possibility. Late last month, Dr. Mehran Anvari performed the world's first hospital-to-hospital telerobotic-assisted surgery over a public network.

Working from a specially designed surgery terminal at St. Joseph's Healthcare in Hamilton, Ontario, Anvari performed laparoscopic Nissen fundoplication (acid-reflux) surgery on a patient 250 miles away in North Bay, Ontario. While telerobotics is a cutting-edge field of medicine, Anvari's long-distance surgery is not the first. However, it's the first to take place over a multiprotocol label switching (MPLS)-based IP virtual private network (VPN), according to Cisco Systems, which provided the equipment. While that particular milestone may not be medically significant, the financial implications are far greater.

By using Bell Canada's IP VPN services, the hospital eliminated the need for — and cost of — a dedicated private line between doctor and patient.

“We're not just showing that this is technologically possibly. We're showing it's financially possible,” said Eugene Lee, Cisco's vice president of enterprise marketing.

The project has also given Cisco a new term for its MPLS gear beyond carrier grade: “surgical grade.”

The network has backup points of presence, redundant transport and switching capabilities, optical and electrical protection, and physically diverse fiber routes that are designed to protect against fiber cuts and laser failures. Combined with MPLS's ability to prioritize the surgeon's data traffic over all other communications and data, Cisco claimed the IP VPN can deliver the demanding performance levels necessary for what are literally life-and-death applications.

Bell Canada said the success of the procedure opens up a new world of possibilities for the Canadian medical community. The cost of deploying multiple private line links between hospitals quickly escalates, and using an IP VPN could allow the Canadian health care system to link disparate facilities to the surgery network rather than just major hospitals.

The network also represents millions of dollars in savings for patient transport costs and could give critical patients immediate access to surgical procedures where it would normally be unavailable, said Charles Salameh, Bell Canada's vice president of managed network services.