HOUSEWIFE Tan Bee Bee, recovering at home after the premature birth of her son, tires easily and is unable to visit the hospital to be with her baby as often as she likes. But she still gets to see him several times a day - on the Internet.
From her home in Jurong, Madam Tan, 33, watches the baby via a live video camera trained on his cot in Singapore General Hospital's neonatal intensive care unit.
All she has to do is log on to a secure website at designated times and there he is, courtesy of Virtual Visit, a new service launched by SGH's department of neonatal and developmental medicine, and SingTel.
The infants in the unit can also be seen on 3G-enabled mobile phones. Members of their extended families can also view the babies online this way.
The service is on a three-month trial, during which the infants 'go online' for three 90-minute sessions a day, at 11am, 5.30pm and 11pm.
Department head Yeo Cheo Lian stressed that Virtual Visit is not meant to replace parental contact, but to complement it.
'Virtual Visit supplements parental contact and allows other family members to bond with the baby and be involved in his care right from the beginning,' said Dr Yeo, adding that this could result in family members providing more support for the parents because of their increased involvement.
SingTel executive Bill Chang said there is 'a lot of potential for this remote monitoring service in the health-care sector'.
'The network cameras have features such as motion detection and the ability to calculate the number of people in a room, so they are also ideal for overseeing elderly patients, or monitoring controlled medical supplies,' he said.
The Virtual Visit service will be made available in July to parents whose infants require a prolonged stay in the neonatal ICU.
During the trial period, the service will be free. But once the trial is over, parents will probably be charged $4 to $5 a day to cover the maintenance of the cameras, said Dr Yeo.
Madam Tan's husband, Mr Wong Kok Fai, 36, a business development manager, can also keep an eye on his son remotely by logging on from his office computer.
He said as long as Virtual Visit is within his financial capacity, he would definitely pay for the service. 'Being able to check on our son helps ease any anxieties she might have,' he said of his wife. 'She checks on him every session.'
The story was also featured on CNA (11 April) and Lianhe Zaobao (12 April).