ntatives in 181 Holiday Inns throughout the U.S. participated in the event. Since that time, video communications has become the preferred means of making product announcements, and the Internet has become the most common medium. Companies such as WebEx and PlaceWare (which Microsoft acquired) cast the die for such communication, and the market has since exploded. Companies often conduct regular meetings in which remote territory sales managers participate by telephone and video communication. Subsequently, those companies introduce those products and services to resellers through live nationwide multipoint videoconferences in which participants at remote sites can interactively provide feedback and ask questions. TELEMEDICINE Telemedicine is one of the most widely-deployed and beneficial applications of video communication. The US military uses it to enhance health care for patients on remote bases where not all areas of medical specialty are represented. Video Communications: The Whole Picture Figure 2-5. Pediatrics Application (courtesy of Canvas). Another popular issues significantly increase the cost of providing can be application is the provision of health services at correctional health care facilities. services to Security prison inmates, and persuading specialists to visit prisons Video Communication Applications challenging. Prisoners receive better care when specialists can support local physicians through video communication. Fitted scopes allow doctors to see a patient's inner ear or the back of a retina. Cameras can zoom in on a skin cancer, electronic stethoscopes can magnify a heartbeat, and machines can transmit digitized X-rays and lab results. Such off-the-shelf tools enable doctors to better diagnose and treat prisoners over distance more conveniently, and at less taxpayer expense. As the abundance of aging baby-boomers stresses the already overburdened and expensive health care system, Telemedicine tools will allow physicians to remotely monitor and treat patients that would have otherwise b