The Indian Health Service is moving rapidly in deploying
state-of-the-art technology to bring primary care and specialty medicine
to remote locations to reduce geographic barriers between remote, smaller
communities and health care providers. For example, clinical engineers are
now equipping small remote villages in interior Alaska with telemedicine
systems to provide transmission of digital images of patients’ ear drums,
skin conditions, and even tonsils to distant health care providers.
Telemedicine also enables small rural communities to communicate during
emergencies with social workers through video conferencing when
transportation is difficult or impossible (especially in blizzard
conditions in South Dakota). Currently, there are about forty telemedicine
programs and partnerships within the IHS that are delivering care to
smaller, more isolated communities.
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