Do you need telemedicine? Can you prove it? If you can, you’re halfway toward attaining telemedicine grants or contracts. A compelling need explained to a sympathetic funder will go far in molding the landscape of your funding pursuit.
A few tips will help measure the need for telemedicine when penning proposals:
Information is GOLDEN
First, scour the Internet (Census.gov and HRSA.gov) for information about your targeted geographic region to uncover demographic themes that build evidence toward your need. Typical topics include:
- Population (age, race, gender, etc.)
- Rural / Urban status
- Poverty levels
- Medically underserved areas
- Health professional shortage areas (primary, mental, and dental)
Next, refine your search for health statistics relevant to the target population to establish why telemedicine is needed. Typical topics include:
- Disease-specific prevalence
- Mortality rates (infant, early, race- or gender-specific, disease-specific)
- Insured / uninsured rates
- Health disparities
Your state health department will have much of this data, but if not, a Google search will help identify other solid sources.
Collect Unique Information
For folks with lead time, an online or hand-administered survey can gather data not available elsewhere, yielding unique, personalized results amongst your target population, which can build a strong case for telemedicine funding. Your prospective telemedicine sites can offer the perfect forum for distributing and administering the survey.
Above all, overwhelm your reviewer with well-conceived and connected facts. Present your data in visually pleasing charts, maps, graphs, or tables, which saves space in your proposal and allows the reviewer to quickly assess your situation.
