Checking the state of Tennessee Telehealth
The SCTRC Outreach team just returned from Pigeon Forge, TN and the Rural Health Association of Tennessee Annual Conference (www.RHAT.org) themed “Threading Partnerships for a Healthy Tennessee”. The goal of each year’s conference is to educate participants about health concerns affecting rural Tennesseans.
Old Mill in Pigeon Forge (photo from Thinkstock)
The specific goal of this year’s conference was to highlight the roll of relationship building for a healthier state.
Paige Ownby, RN, School Nurse, and Don Best, School Health Coordinator from the Sevier County School System
The SCTRC team was among over 70 vendors ranging from healthcare facilities and providers, higher education institutions and non-profit organizations. Our team made valuable contacts and heard many great speakers. Special mention to the all those that signed up and became members of www.LearnTelehealth.org. We look forward to interacting with you there!
During our visit we also toured the Sevier County School System school health project called SMART (Student Medical Assistance Response Team). The school system partners with Cherokee Health Systems to provide health care via telemedicine to their 23 district schools serving elementary, middle and high school. There are full-time nurses at each school that play an integral role in SMART. Over 6,000 students are enrolled and the rural schools utilize the program most.
While traveling Tennessee we visited Vanderbilt Medical Center. New telehealth initiatives are being developed there. We look forward to sharing more details soon!
We stopped by Vanderbilt University Medical Center to visit the telehealth group there.
The conference was a pleasure and a great connection to telehealth in our region. Overall, we met a lot of Tennesseans excited about telehealth!
