The Federal Communications Commission has offered the University Health System funding to improve the University's telemedicine program as part of a pilot program to expand and enhance health care in rural communities.
Telemedicine seeks to use broadband Internet technology to allow hospitals and health care centers throughout the Commonwealth and beyond to communicate with one another, according to Karen Rheuban, medical director of the University's Office of Telemedicine. According to FCC spokesperson Robert Kenny, the University will receive about $900,000 annually for a period of three years to fund new and expanded broadband network infrastructure.
With this technology, the University Hospital, as well as other hospitals and health care centers within the network, will be able to "communicate with each other electronically through broadband, voice data and video transfer to assist patients with their health care needs," Kenny said. "For example, if someone needs cardiac consultation and they are in a more remote area of the state, their health care center will be able to communicate with the University Health System to diagnose and treat the patient."
Though the telemedicine program has various uses, including continuing medical education, patient education and consultative services, the main goal of the program is to reach patients in rural areas, Rheuban said.
"What [the program] does is it affords us the opportunity to increase outreach services to patients who cannot travel to Charlottesville or who need timely access to health care where it would not be otherwise available," she said.
Kenny noted that the program allows patients far from the University to access specialists in fields such as cardiology and radiology "with expertise that the University Hospital has to offer, in a timely and efficient manner."
University Health System officials also plan to initiate a program to improve stroke care throughout the Commonwealth through the telemedicine system, Rheuban said, noting that because stroke victims require immediate care, a patient's chance of survival decreases if he lives more than three hours from a stroke treatment center.
To address this specific concern through the use of telemedicine, Rheuban noted, "our goal is to connect the patient, their health care provider and the U.Va. stroke neurologist to evaluate and treat the patient early following the onset of symptoms of a stroke"
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