Hollywood-based physician group Wound Technology Network (WTN) inked a two-year agreement with AT&T to provide its certified wound care specialists with HTC FUZE smartphones running on AT&T's wireless network. WTN has had a longstanding agreement with Verizon Wireless to provide laptop data cards to its physicians who were looking to wirelessly access patient records, treatment visuals and other reference materials online. No word on whether the AT&T deal replaces the Verizon Wireless deal. Data cards for laptops from Verizon Wireless and smartphones running on AT&T's network seem to be the current wireless tools that WTN offers its physicians.

WTN is using the FUZE smartphones to enable the physicians to diagnose and prescribe treatments for patients with chronic wounds anytime, anywhere, the company's press release states.

"Under a two year agreement with AT&T, Wound Technology Network will equip its clinical staff including physicians, nurse practitioners and physician assistants across South Florida and Southern California with HTC FUZE(TM) smart mobile devices when providing care in patient’s homes. Clinical staff will use the devices to access an application developed by iVisit, which creates videoconferencing tools for mobile devices and PCs, and speak live with a wound care specialist at Wound Technology Network’s tele-health center who will assist them to assess their patients’ wounds and perform the necessary treatment. To aid in the treatment process, clinical staff will also capture images of the patient’s wounds using the HTC FUZE(TM) and transmit the images to the wound care specialists to upload onto an electronic medical record which is immediately faxed to the patient’s primary care physician.

"Until now, immobile patients and often those with chronic wounds relied heavily upon transport services for access to treatment, which often accounted for delayed diagnosis, prolonged hospital visits, and unnecessarily high treatment costs. Now having clinicians equipped with smart mobile devices, immobile patients have access to expert specialists for real-time diagnosis and treatment."

For more, read the press release from AT&T here