Intelligent Community Forum Names the nDanville Medical Network as a Recipient of the 2011 Founders Award

The nDanville Medical Network is one of two projects worldwide that will be honored on June 1 for the use of technology to improve health care in the community.
On that date, the Medical Network will receive the Founders Award from the Intelligent Community Forum (ICF), a New York-based think tank that studies and shares the best practices in establishing a broadband economy. The other recipient of the ICF’s Founders Award will be a planned community in Ipswich, Australia.
In announcing the awards this week, ICF co-founder Louis Zacharilla noted that Danville and Ipswich are not communities that receive much international attention. “However, both represent the future because both have elegantly figured out how to use the technology that exists, innovate upon it when necessary and apply it to the lives of residents.”
He added, “Life is made better in the community because of innovation in these two intelligent communities.”
The nDanville Medical Network connects Danville Regional Medical Center and approximately 50 percent of the area’s medical facilities to nDanville (Network Danville), which is a fiber optic network established by the city of Danville. The network’s high performance fiber uses 100 megabit and Gigabit connections to provide real time access to patient information and medical records for the connected medical facilities.
“The Medical Network is one of the many areas in which nDanville is growing to better serve the citizens of Danville,” said City Manager Joe King. “The potential use of the network is endless. With the nDanville Medical Network, physicians can share and collaborate on CT scans and MRIs in real time as if they were physically located in the same building.”
Eric Deaton, chief executive officer of the Danville Regional Medical Center, called the nDanville Medical Network a tremendous asset.
“It enables us to better serve our patients by having their information available across multiple sites,” Deaton said. “We will continue to support the city’s efforts in linking our medical community together, and I want to commend the city for the success of this network and making healthcare a top priority.”
The Founders Awards will be presented during a ceremony to be held on the opening day of a summit that will bring broadband leaders worldwide to New York. The awards offer global recognition to individuals, applications, organizations and innovations that represent models of good practice. The theme for this year’s awards was “Health in the Intelligent Community.”
The ICF defines “Intelligent Communities” as not necessarily big cities or famous technology hubs but those who have come to understand the opportunity provided by a broadband economy and, as a result, have taken steps to create an economy capable of prospering in it.
The nDanville network has more than 125 miles of fiber optic cable that extends high speed internet transport service to schools, government buildings, and a growing number of businesses.

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For more information, contact Jason Grey, broadband network manager for Danville Utilities. He is available greyjc@ci.danville.va.us or (434) 773-8138.