Doctors say that in every stroke, time equals brain. Patients have far less chance of permanent brain damage if they get clot-busting drugs within three hours of a stroke. But not every stroke victim should be given these drugs, and getting the patient to a doctor who can make the right decision often takes longer than the three-hour window.

In upstate New York, patients are often flown to Buffalo's Millard Fillmore Hospital, which has a world-class stroke center. Now the hospital's neurologists are consulting via videoconferencing with emergency room physicians in Olean General Hospital, a small rural hospital. A PC with a high-resolution camera in the emergency room lets the Millard Fillmore physicians view CT scan results, speak directly with the patient and the ER physician, and even watch the patient examination. This lets them diagnose the stroke and decide quickly whether the patient should be given clot-busting drugs.