LG Pro: Centric® Connect™ is a new tool for third-party development partners or System Integrators (SI) to provide hospitals, medical centers, and long-term care facilities access to videoconferencing via LG’s healthcare smart TVs. It supports peer-to-peer video calls between the patients’ in-room smart television, and desktop and mobile devices of hospital staff, doctors, family members, and friends. Pro:Centric Connect also provides a scalable, secure, cloud-based video call handling platform that manages the traffic and call transactions for multiple hospital facilities.

Here’s how Pro:Centric Connect works. The built-in browser of LG’s healthcare smart TV supports the WebRTC (real-time communication) open standard and this is used by the hosted third-party interactive patient application to add video conferencing capability to the system. With the addition of a compatible webcam,* the patient can access the video calling feature through the existing user interface on the LG smart TV, navigating the menu by using existing in-room control devices such as the pillow speaker already connected to TV. The patient can originate or terminate calls at any time. Family members and friends can utilize their own personal mobile devices that run on Android™, iOS, MacOS or Windows to reach out to patients.

LG’s Pro:Centric Connect platform is secure in that it does not require entering in patient personal identifiable information and call traffic is encrypted. The SI’s application hosts the data that connects a specific patient with a specific room number, minimizing the possibility of unauthorized users accessing the system.

Videoconferencing has become commonplace for businesses, especially since the coronavirus pandemic began. And now telemedicine has arrived and is growing, giving patients not only the opportunity to speak with their doctor, but the benefits of face-to-face contact and more frequent check-ins, where the physician can assess the patient’s demeanor and the patient can experience the assurance of personal interaction. Pro:Centric Connect means less travel time for doctors and more time to meet with patients, providing the ability to see more patients at multiple sites.

Patients alone in their hospital bed or long-term care facility can benefit from the comfort of face time with loved ones. And rather than having to hold onto a mobile device like a smartphone or tablet to view the video call, the LG smart healthcare TV allows the patient to maintain a comfortable position. Especially in these days of restricted visitor access due to the pandemic, LG Pro:Centric Connect video calling can help ensure the smiles and benefits of the all-important human connection while minimizing the risks.