Agriculture Department Cultivates Rural Health IT

The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced another round of funding earlier this week to develop telemedicine networks across rural America.
 
In a June 6 announcement, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said the department would offer $14 million in rural-development financing for 32 telemedicine projects, 19 distance-learning projects and one combined project, with 45 percent of funds going to counties that have minority populations of at least 30 percent.Projects include:
 

• $447,000 for Dean Health Systems in Madison, Wis. The project will create 12 telemedicine sites in seven Wisconsin counties. Providing remote access to cardiology, pharmacy and dermatology services will reduce patient travel time by an estimated 13,000 hours.

• $314,000 to Michigan’s Upper Peninsula Health Care Network for specialized electrocardiogram equipment and software to create an eight-state telemedicine network. The project will eliminate the need to fax ECG studies to specialists.

• $359,000 to North Carolina’s Ocracoke Health Center Inc. for cart-based video-conferencing units that will allow for 12 simultaneous HD video connections. The project will also provide digital stethoscopes and laptops for accessing and filling out patient records.

• $415,000 to Samaritan Health Services Inc. for delivery, via videoconferencing, of mental-health care at 13 rural hospitals and clinics in three western Oregon counties.