Telehealth Grantee Directory

Network Partners:

Arizona Foundation for the Eye, Phoenix, Children's Clinics for Rehabilitative Services, Tucson, St. Elizabeth's of Hungary Clinic, Tucson, Mariposa Community Health Center, Nogales, Tuba City Regional Healthcare Corp and the Tonalea and Cameron Chapter Houses, Tuba City, schools in Tuba City and Nogales; homes, Sapori Elementary School and Community Food Bank in Amado.

Project Purpose:

Create the Arizona Diabetes Virtual Center of Excellence (ADVICE) network to establish a comprehensive telemedicine program for prevention, specialty health care, assessment and management; create and evaluate innovative distance learning programs on diabetes for patients, families, children, community-based allied health professionals and physicians in rural areas.

Outcomes Expected/Project Accomplishments:

• K-12 science fair educational value and diabetes fact conveyance (measure) - survey (tool)
• Student Health Professional telemedicine knowledge (measure) - survey (tool)
• Educational impact (measure) - satisfaction and knowledge survey (tool)
• Clinical services impact (measure) - patient record evaluation & OAT forms (tool)

Service Area:

Pima, Santa Cruz, Navajo and Coconino Counties serving three MUAs, three HPSAs, one Primary Care Association (PCA), one border community and one Native American site.

Services Provided:

The Arizona Telemedicine Program has been in existence since July of 1996 and has provided clinical consultations in over 55 specialties. Under this grant, services were provided for diabetes care & management, ophthalmology, podiatry, wound management and nutrition.

Equipment:

Tandberg 6000 videoconference unit, Canon CR6-45NM Non-Mydriatic Retinal Camera System, Digital Stethoscope Receive Unit, Tandberg HCS III, PCs with Telemed Software, Tele-Home Health Central Station and Remote Units (various), Polycom VSX5000, Polycom PVX.

Transmission:

Full T1, Internet, POTS, 802.11b wireless, video teleconference (VTC) bridge.

Network Partners:

Project partners are the Colleges at the Arizona Health Sciences Center in Tucson, including the Medicine, Nursing, Pharmacy, and Public Health, all of whom are active programs with the Arizona Telemedicine Program and are integral to the program. Future partners will be the Indian Health Service and Yuma Proving Ground (DOD).

Project Purpose:

THealth will include a state-of-the-art learning center designed for contextual-based learning by interdisciplinary teams of students of various healthcare professions including medicine, nursing and pharmacy. Curricula will be developed to take advantage of both on-site and extramural telemedicine patients. Distance education will also be provided to clinical sites.

Outcomes Expected/Project Accomplishments:

THealth will be regarded as a next generation video-conferencing facility that leverages accessibility to content-rich education and training resources, including traditional learning modalities, multi-media programming, faculty-student video-conferencing, and telemedicine patient encounters, to provide students with a rich, multi-disciplinary, interactive, learning experience.

Service Area:

THealth will be linked to the adjacent biomedical communications control room. This will provide access to the entire Arizona Telemedicine Program Network that links to 162 sites in Arizona and adjacent states. Initially the service area will be Tucson and Phoenix.

Services Provided:

Curriculum will be designed to complement and broaden that of the medical school curriculum. It will emphasize advanced technologies and medical informatics. Medical simulation, virtual reality, robotics, and telemedicine clinics will be important features of this new curriculum pathway. Didactic presentations on telemedicine/telehealth courses will be offered as well.

Equipment:

State-of-the-art conferencing theater, fully equipped telemedicine training center, digital dermascope, otoscope, opthalmoscope, stethoscope, specialized control, and monitoring devices.

Transmission:

Full T1, Internet, POTS, 802.11b wireless, video teleconference (VTC) bridge.

Network Partners:

• Maricopa County Sheriff Jail Facilities: Durango Jail, Estrella Jail, Estrella Support (Tent City) Jail, Towers Jail, Lower Buckeye Jail, 4th Avenue Jail
• Maricopa County District Facility Substations: District I Facility (Mesa), District II Facility (Avondale), District III Facility (Surprise)

Project Purpose:

Through the use of the Arizona Telemedicine Network, Correctional Health Services will be able to perform consultations with any entity connected to the network. This network will improve access to subspecialty medical care and reduce costs associated with unnecessary transports and referrals. Correctional Health Services has one of the largest in-patient psychiatric units in the State of Arizona. Psychiatric consultations utilizing interactive telemedicine will greatly improve our ability to stabilize the seriously mentally ill inmates. An intra-jail network will also be established. Each jail location will be able to perform telemedicine consults and share information with each other.

Outcomes Expected:

• Provide medical screening at remote booking sites to reduce police agency time in transporting.
• Reduce inmate transfers out of the facilities (jails) for primary care.
• Improve public safety by treating more inmates in the secure jail setting.
• Discourage false medical claims by inmates.
• Provide inmates with an improved level of medical care, thus reducing litigation.
• Improve the access time to specialty care.

Service Area:

• Maricopa County: Arizona Department of Corrections (ADC)
• Maricopa County Sheriff's Office
• Maricopa Integrated Health Systems

Services Provided:

Remote booking substation initial medical exams; Continuing Medical Education; Psychiatric consultation; Intra-jail network and communication; Pharmacy communications/reviews-planned implementation first quarter of 2007

Equipment:

• Tandberg Director Unit with VCR, DVD, and computer presentation capabilities
• Tandberg 1000
• Tandberg Intern Li
• Tandberg SC880
• AMD-2500 General Exam Camera and AMD-8200 Vital Signs Monitor (with SC880)
• Otoscope and accessories
• American Medical Development-Welch Allyn VDX-300 ENT scope

Transmission:

A full T-1 bandwidth is currently being used.