Last Friday featured twin firsts of medical significance for our less-than-healthy state.
The first-ever class of doctors graduated from Jonesboro's NYIT College of Osteopathic Medicine at Arkansas State University, in a first-ever virtual ceremony conducted completely online.
Both mark major milestones related to the future of how health care in the Delta is and will be changing, evolving and--hopefully--improving.
For starters, the value of a medical school situated in the Delta, statistically a hotbed of chronic ill health conditions, cannot be overestimated. This inaugural class contains newly minted physicians who will be going on to residencies right where more doctors are desperately needed--and where continuing medical education opportunities didn't exist prior to NYITCOM at A-State's efforts to create them.
The counties along the Mississippi River essentially constitute the sick ward of the Natural State. In a map produced by countyhealthrankings.org, Arkansas counties are color-coded in shades of green according to quartiles reflecting their rank among health outcomes. The entire river shoreline on the east side of the state is the darkest green, indicating the worst rankings for outcomes that include measures such as premature death (years of potential life lost), poor health days, life expectancy, low birthweight and child mortality.
Indeed, of the 19 counties across the state in the lowest quartile, 11 are in the northeast corner.
The county map breakout is similar for health factor rankings, which are calculated using weighted measures for things like behaviors (smoking, drugs, diet), clinical care (access to doctors), economics (education, employment, income) and environment (water quality, housing). The color code for these ranking relationships are shades of blue, and again, more than half the state's total counties in the darkest blue bottom quartile (10 of 19) are clustered in the northeast, crowding the river. The 72nd to 75th rankings are held by four border counties: Mississippi, St. Francis, Lee and Phillips.
The state average ratio of population-to-primary care physicians is 1,500:1, which is 13 percent higher than the national average. But in some of the deepest blue counties in the Arkansas Delta region, the dearth of doctors is drastic. Lee County's ratio is 9,180:1; Poinsett County's is 6,040:1.
NYITCOM at A-State reported that nearly three-quarters of its match rate for residencies for the first class are in primary care, and half of those are within the Delta. As Gov. Asa Hutchinson noted during a recorded address to graduates, the core mission for the medical school is to train physicians "in this region, for this region."
The second milestone--a virtual commencement during a global pandemic--is related directly to physician readiness for tomorrow's health care. By most experts' estimations, telemedicine has made monumental strides since the pandemic ushered in guidelines to slow the spread. Years, maybe even decades, of progress have happened in mere months.
Old habits have died out of necessity, and medical staff as well as patients have quickly adapted to the idea of using Internet technology to make appointments, check on test results, undergo initial triage and more.
That's an advantage Jonesboro medical students have had from the start, since tele-education is a foundational aspect of the NYITCOM at A-State initiative. The original idea behind the public-private partnership was to use broadband connectivity to leverage NYIT's wealth of instructional expertise and educators in New York together and in concert with local faculty on-site at the Jonesboro campus.
From day one, medical school students in Jonesboro have basically had telemedicine built in to their DNA as future doctors. And as telemedicine continues to play a more prevalent and practical role in rural health care (where DOs tend to practice in higher numbers than MDs), it's already established as second-nature for this class of new physicians.
The enabling equipment at NYITCOM at A-State is as innovative as the idea itself. The school uses revolutionary life-size video displays designed by a telemedicine pioneer and physician (who is also a faculty member at NYITCOM) to specifically improve quality medical care access for rural and underserved populations.
Aptly called "The Rounder," it's a six-foot-tall mobile console that's a stark departure from smaller, traditional cart-based video monitors. Its 55-inch screen integrates with a patented camera mounting system that enables clinicians to look directly into the lens, delivering natural eye contact and an incredibly realistic, intimate-feeling video experience.
Despite its oversized screen dimensions, the display system utilizes a new video compression codec that requires only one-third of the bandwidth required for normal telemedicine devices. It can function smoothly and stream live, full-size HD video on 4G or LTE cellular networks if ethernet connectivity isn't available--a critical component in rural areas where broadband access is often the exception rather than the rule.
You literally have to see it to truly appreciate it. And NYITCOM at A-State students see and use this advanced telehealth technology every day.
The unique combination of hands-on telemedicine training, education and experience in the heart of an area plagued by poor health was dramatically showcased last week as graduating medical students remotely watched their own commencement ceremony while connected online. It's a more than promising start for a new batch of homegrown doctors.
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Dana D. Kelley is a freelance writer from Jonesboro.
Editorial on 05/29/2020