APA Medical Director Melvin Sabshin, M.D., and Director of Government Relations Jay Cutler paid a visit to the future when they met with officers and members of the New Jersey Psychiatric Association using state-of-the-art video teleconferencing technology. From Cutler's office in Washington, D.C., last month, the two APA leaders could see and talk to psychiatrists meeting in New Jersey, who in turn could see and talk to Sabshin and Cutler in "real time."

"People haven't stopped talking about it," said New Jersey Psychiatric Association President Nicolai Nielsen, M.D. Nielsen told Psychiatric News that he conceived the idea of a video teleconference as a way of enhancing communication between the national organization and the district branch. The high-tech meeting took place 24 hours after election day last month, and the New Jersey psychiatrists were able to discuss political changes on Capitol Hill, the fate of legislation on parity for treatment of mental illness, antitrust concerns, and managed care.

Nielsen said he is drawn to the burgeoning new technology of video teleconferencing from his work in rural psychiatry, and he believes the technology is laying the groundwork for the telemedicine of tomorrow. "I view this as a more than viable way of bringing psychiatry to the hinterlands," he said.

In the meantime, Nielsen said, he hopes teleconferencing can increase the efficiency of communication between APA's national office and the district branches. He believes the day is not far off when video capability will be part of a desktop computer. "What would it mean to do committee work this way?," he wondered.

Technology for the free demonstration was provided by PictureTel of Andover, Mass., and Bell Atlantic.

(Psychiatric News, December 6, 1996)