The Infectious Disease Clinic at the University Hospital re-obtained the Ryan White Title III Primary Care and Early Intervention Services grant March 3. Doctors and Clinic personnel met yesterday to discuss how the clinic will use the grant money in the field of telemedicine.
The Department of Health and Human Services funds the federal grant. It totals $1.7 million spread over five years.
The purpose of the grant is to help recipients enhance the quality of HIV primary care to rural and underserved communities, according to the description of the grant provided on its Web site.
The Clinic received the grant for the first time in 1998. It provided funding for three years and was renewed in 2001. The Clinic lost the grant, however, in July 2004 to Centra Health in Lynchburg.
"When we lost the grant, the Medical Center provided all the funds for us to continue," said Dr. Greg Townsend, associate University professor of internal medicine.
According to Townsend, Clinic personnel noted that although the Clinic lost the grant, the Clinic did not lose patients and even may have gained some.
"There are not very many people in this area who have the expertise to take care of patients with HIV," he said. "Some patients are also wary of getting care for HIV in their hometown because word is going to get out."
For patients who do not want to drive six or seven hours to Charlottesville, the Clinic offers the option of telemedicine.
"There is a very active telemedicine office at the hospital," Townsend said. "We worked with them to provide care for the correctional system. We are also using the facilities to provide care of patients that are far away."
As part of their grant application, the Clinic will establish telemedicine centers at Rockingham Memorial Hospital and Norton Community Hospital, Townsend said.
Telemedicine uses the Internet to set up a video conference between a doctor at the University hospital and the patient at a remote location, Telemedicine Technical Manager Michael Patterson said.
"We do this over IP, except we tweak the network to get a decent quality," Patterson said.
Besides being able to see the patient, the system is set up so that the doctor at the University can listen to a patient's heartbeat, which is measured using a stethoscope. The heartbeat is then digitized and sent to the University over the Internet, Patterson said.
Many remote sites have been set up all over Virginia, mostly in the west, Telecom Network Analyst Dave Batton said.
"Over the last three years, we have added over 25 sites," Batton said. "When we first started, it cost $100,000 per site. Now the costs went down to $20,000."
Telemedicine has been welcomed in many communities, but Telemedicine Director Eugene Sullivan said some doctors have been hesitant to use the system.
"The doctors are worried that we are coming into the community and taking their patients," Sullivan said. "But we won't do the same services as they do. So, if there is a dermatologist in the community, we won't do dermatology -- we'll instead focus on AIDS or cardiology."
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