The University of Kansas Hospital today announced a donation that will fund a broadcast news studio and Medical News Network.
The hospital received a substantial donation from the Dolph C. Simons Jr. family, said KU Hospital spokeswoman Jill Chadwick. Simons is the publisher of the Lawrence Journal-World.
A fully functioning television studio with live capabilities, including the latest equipment, is now operating as a result of the donation, the KU spokeswoman said. A news feed called the Medical News Network has been created for the news media to use as a resource for reporting medical stories.
“We believe that we are the first in the nation to have a live capability,” Chadwick said. Other academic medical institutions have production studios and create videos that they use on their own websites, but this is the first of its kind.
Chadwick said the new technology already has been used by members of the national media who were interested in reporting the suspected Ebola case at the hospital last month, which turned out not to be Ebola.
She said the hospital is providing raw elements, such as information, research, and raw video, so that the media may use them to create stories.
As it sometimes becomes more difficult for the media to report medical stories because of HIPAA rules, KU Hospital is opening the door so that news agencies may give their readers, viewers and listeners the medical news to keep them well and keep them healthy, she said.
