Partners Healthcare, a Massachusetts-based hospital chain, uses telemedicine to monitor and treat heart and stroke patients in remote or outlying areas. The company also offers a telemedicine approach for home-based vital-sign monitoring that allows patients to send in their pulse rates, blood-oxygen saturation levels, and blood-pressure readings on a daily basis. The vital-sign monitoring program only requires a dial-up Internet connection, although broadband and wireless connections are also available. Patients are given a blood-pressure cuff, pulse oximeter, weight scale, and small tabletop console. Using a liquid crystal display, the console leads the patient through the data-gathering process step-by-step. The data is then transmitted through a phone line to a central server database inside Partners' firewall. The database records patient information, sensor data and history, and care algorithms. This data is then sent via secure HTTPS over the Web to a nurses' station where the data is displayed in either yellow or red colors, according to predetermined severity levels. The nurses then decide whether action needs to be taken or not. The TeleStroke program, another Partners' initiative, uses videoconferencing technology to examine stroke patients at outlying hospitals. Stroke specialists from Massachusetts General Hospital are able to advise physicians and nurses at subscribing community hospitals of recommended treatment plans after interactively assessing stroke patients. The only equipment required is a videoconferencing unit, an ISDN line, and a small server.