Specialty care without relocating specialists
Telehealth for rural hospitals works when three things meet at the bedside: an on-site nurse or telepresenter, connected exam devices, and a remote specialist who sees the data live. MedConnect supplies the telehealth cart, station or kit and the secure platform so a rural or critical access hospital can add specialty consults—cardiology, neurology, infectious disease, wound care—without hiring those specialists on site.
A critical access hospital or small rural hospital usually has nurses and generalist physicians on site but no cardiologist, neurologist or infectious disease specialist down the hall. Telemedicine for critical access hospitals closes that gap by bringing the specialist to the patient by video. The video call alone is not enough, though: the specialist needs to hear the heart and lungs, read a 12-lead ECG, see vital signs as they change and look into an ear or at a wound. That is the job of the connected devices and of the trained person who operates them.
MedConnect is a telemedicine station and software built by Promotal (Groupe ELOI) and assembled and configured in Ernée, France. It is deployed in France and six other countries, including the United States, where a customer uses it for at-home consultations in partnership with clinics. The model is always the same: a nurse or other on-site assistant presents the patient while the remote physician consults by secure video and sees every measurement live—see assisted teleconsultation for the full nurse-presented workflow.
Not every consult has to be live. For non-urgent questions—a wound photo, an ECG review, a follow-up after discharge—the team can collect the exam data and send it as a store-and-forward (asynchronous) case for the specialist to review later. Several clinicians can also join one session when a case needs more than one opinion.
The right form factor depends on where your patients are when they need the specialist. All three run the same software and device set, so a hospital can start with one and add another later. For a side-by-side view of the two most common choices, read telehealth kit vs telehealth cart.
| Setting | Best configuration | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Emergency department and inpatient bedside | Telehealth cart | Rolls to the patient, keeps devices charged and mounted, ready for unplanned consults |
| Outpatient specialty clinic room | Fixed station / nurse-led telehealth center | A dedicated room for scheduled specialty days (cardiology, endocrinology, behavioral health) |
| Swing beds, outreach clinics and home follow-up | Portable telehealth kit | Travels in a case to wherever the nurse sees the patient; a backpack version suits home visits |
The US basic configuration uses FDA-cleared and FDA-registered devices. Clearance status below was checked against FDA records; component documentation is available on request.
| Use case | Device | What the specialist gets | FDA status |
|---|---|---|---|
| General exam | Edan iM3s vital signs monitor | Blood pressure, SpO2, pulse and temperature displayed live | FDA-cleared, 510(k) K202892 / K233038 |
| General exam | Riester ri-sonic USB electronic stethoscope | Heart, lung and abdominal sounds streamed to the remote clinician | FDA-cleared, 510(k) K132560 |
| General exam | Firefly digital otoscope and Firefly exam camera | Live ear, throat, skin and wound images on the second video stream | Class I, 510(k)-exempt, FDA-registered |
| Cardiology | Edan SE-1515 12-lead PC ECG (DX12 wireless / DP12 USB) | 12-lead ECG launched from the consult screen; the PDF report attaches to the consultation automatically (GDT) | FDA class II, 510(k) K152427 |
Other devices can be added for specific service lines; see the full telehealth equipment range. We confirm the clearance status of any added device for your configuration rather than describing the whole catalog as FDA-cleared.
MedConnect does not replace your EHR and does not do billing or claims. Your hospital keeps its own systems; MedConnect connects to them. The telehealth platform supports HL7, FHIR R4 (for vital signs, via AIView), GDT for ECG devices, BLE and USB for devices, and a REST API for server-to-server exchange of patient, staff and exam data. The interface scope is defined with your IT team during solution design.
Coverage and payment rules for telehealth differ by payer, state and service, and they change. Your organization is responsible for validating them. Neutral starting points include the Center for Connected Health Policy and telehealth.hhs.gov.
More detail is on our telehealth compliance page.
We are direct about how delivery works. We assemble and configure the equipment, ship it directly to your hospital, train your team remotely by video and provide remote support afterwards. We do not have a US distributor or an on-site installation team. Because each cart, station or kit arrives configured and tested, setup on your side is mostly connecting it to your network and accounts. Training covers the telepresenter role—US resources such as the regional Telehealth Resource Centers also offer telepresenter training.
Many rural hospitals fund telehealth equipment through grants rather than operating budgets. The Rural Health Transformation Program sends funding to states, which re-grant it to providers; some state programs list telehealth equipment and exam devices as eligible supplies. Our Rural Health Transformation Program telehealth guide explains how that money flows to equipment buyers. Other federal sources include the USDA Distance Learning and Telemedicine grants and the FCC Rural Health Care Program, which supports connectivity for eligible rural health care providers. Each program sets its own eligibility and rules; check the current notice with the administering agency.
Running a rural health clinic or FQHC rather than a hospital? See telehealth for rural health clinics and FQHCs. For post-discharge visits at home, see home health telehealth and remote patient monitoring. Evaluating other vendors? Read GlobalMed alternatives.
Solution design
Tell us which departments need specialty consults, which specialties you plan to add, who presents the patient and how many units you need. Pricing depends on the number and type of units (cart, station, kit), the device set, user count, EHR interfaces and training scope.
An on-site nurse or other trained telepresenter examines the patient with connected devices—vital signs monitor, electronic stethoscope, exam camera, 12-lead ECG—while a remote physician or specialist joins by secure video and sees the measurements live. The specialist directs the exam, documents a recommendation, and the hospital team carries out the plan.
That is the usual purpose of a telehealth program in a critical access hospital: specialists who practice elsewhere consult remotely on patients in your ED, inpatient or swing beds and outpatient rooms. MedConnect supplies the equipment and software for that encounter. It does not supply the physicians—you use your own medical staff, a partner health system or a contracted specialist network.
Choose by where the patient is. A telehealth cart rolls to the ED or inpatient bedside. A fixed station suits an outpatient specialty clinic room used on scheduled days. A portable kit covers swing beds, outreach clinics and home follow-up. Many hospitals combine two form factors on the same platform.
The US basic configuration combines FDA-cleared and FDA-registered devices: the Edan iM3s vital signs monitor (510(k) K202892 / K233038), the Edan SE-1515 12-lead PC ECG (510(k) K152427) and the Riester ri-sonic USB electronic stethoscope (510(k) K132560) are FDA-cleared; the Firefly otoscope and exam cameras are Class I, 510(k)-exempt and FDA-registered.
No. MedConnect does not do billing or claims and does not replace your EHR. Your hospital keeps its own EHR and billing system; MedConnect connects to it through interfaces such as HL7, FHIR R4 (for vital signs, via AIView), GDT and a REST API. Telehealth coverage and payment rules vary, so your organization must validate them for each service.
Yes. MedConnect is HIPAA-ready, we sign a Business Associate Agreement (BAA), US customer data is hosted on AWS in the United States (us-east-1), video is end-to-end encrypted, and the platform is ISO 27001:2022 certified by the British Assessment Bureau.
We ship the configured equipment directly to your hospital, train your team remotely and provide remote support. We do not have a US distributor or an on-site installation team, so the configuration is prepared and tested before shipping and onboarding is done by video with your clinical and IT staff.
