UAMS, UA join to offer telehealth grants

The University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences along with the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville have partnered to provide grants for telehealth research in the state.

Laura James, director of UAMS Translational Research Institute, said the program will award about four grants for up to $15,000 each to providers for the purpose of collecting data regarding telehealth use. An additional $5,000 will be provided if the University of Arkansas is able to collaborate on the project.

Telehealth uses electronic devices such as televisions and cameras to remotely connect medical providers when treating patients.

"We are the second highest state in the country if you look at our telehealth capability," James said Thursday. "We have a chance to be an example to other states. We want to give them [providers] the opportunity to show how this works so that it can eventually be adopted throughout the country."

UAMS has 40 telehealth programs that it operates in the state, James said. However, data collection is not sufficient.

The university received a $102 million grant in 2010 from the U.S. Department of Commerce to upgrade broadband connections at 474 health care and education sites for health care. James said those upgrades have helped the state develop and expand its telehealth program.

The Arkansas Stroke Assistance Through Virtual Emergency Support program is an example of telehealth in the state. More than 40 hospitals in the state are set up to connect with vascular neurologists located not only in Arkansas but other states 24 hours a day.

Krisha Jech, Northwest Medical Center-Springdale director of regulatory compliance and quality of control, helped connect her hospital to the program. She said a television on a cart, along with a camera, allows specialized doctors located elsewhere in the state to view an exam of the patient.

Results from labs and CT scans are also shared with the doctor, Jech said.

"The doctor decides if a medicine called t-PA can be used," Jech said.

Jech said the medicine can completely reverse symptoms of the stroke within minutes to hours. However, she said, it can be detrimental to patients not having a particular stroke.

"An emergency department physician specializes in many things, and this medicine is a very specialized drug," Jech said. "An ED [emergency department] physician may not feel comfortable using it. So they now have someone right there with them. They have that extra person there to back them up and say this is what needs to happen."

Northwest Medical Center-Bentonville started the program in January 2011, according to a news release from the program. It states that in the five years prior to the hospital starting the program, it had administered the drug once. However, during its first year in the program, the drug was administered to nine patients.

James said telehealth is used by UAMS to connect hospitals across the state to specialists for numerous medical needs. One program helps connect doctors to specialists who focus on congestive heart failure. Another program helps hospitals connect when treating women who have high-risk pregnancies.

More research into telehealth could mean more rapid, effective treatment throughout not only the state but also the country, James said.

"We want to show that we have strong data that makes a difference, that this is not just a convenient thing for the patient but that lives are being saved," James said. "Sometimes when you are trying to change a culture it takes awhile to show that through studies. It takes a lot of data to influence decisions at the policy level or insurance level."

James said small studies, like the ones the grants will fund, are needed to apply for larger grants.

James expects that four providers will receive funds by the fall of this year. The grants will then run for a year. She said it is expected that new grants will be given out annually.

Metro on 06/16/2014

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