Special Report: Gov. John Kasich Puts Summa Western Reserve Hospital on Cutting Edge

Governor John Kasich's planned ten-fold increase to Ohio's network bandwidth is just what the doctor ordered.

The governor spoke at length in a web conference earlier this week from Columbus on how Ohio's network would soon be able to transfer 100 gigabits of data per second, which has the potential to put and other major hospitals from around the state on the cutting edge of clinical innovation.

Here's what the the accelerated bandwidth will do in terms of data transfer:

• Data equivalent to 80 million file cabinets can be transferred daily.
• 300,000 x-rays can be transmitted in just one minute.
• 8.5 million electronic medical records can be transferred in one minute.
• High definition, real-time video feeds from Ohio's hospitals can be viewed around the state, country and world by doctors who want to consult and weign in on a given patient's diagnosis, surgery or medical treatment.

"Think about it as a super highway," said Kasich. "Instead of having a two-lane road, we now have 10 lanes, frankly, with the ability to move things quicker than anybody ever dreamt possible."

The recently approved agreement with Cisco and Juniper will cost $10 million to boost the broadband infrastructure, he said.

Doctors from Summa, OSU, the University of Cincinnati and the Cleveland Veterans Affairs Hospital participated in the web conference and offered their insights on how this technological advancement could be leveraged.

Dr. Ali Rezai, from Ohio State's Wexner Medical Center, said it will significantly increase patient care, improve how doctors educate and train young medical specialists and perpetuate research and development in the field.

"Imagine if you were able to interface on a routine basis with video, audio and review medical data at the touch of a button," said Rezai.

We could evaluate, manage and treat patients across the state, and for that matter, across the country by just sitting in front of a computer."

Summa's CEO, Dr. Robert Kent, said the video feeds would minimize visits to the doctor, accelerate diagnoses and cut costs to patients and hospitals.

The breakthough could also facilitate business and job creation in Ohio as the super network will link together so many of the state's academic and medical communities, said Kasich.

Even though California and Indiana are working on similar bandwidth projects, Ohio is leading the way with the most powerful and integrated network, said Kent.

Phase one of the project will connect Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus, Dayton and Toledo by June, and phase two will link up Akron, Athens and Youngstown by October.