On May 1, the ANGELS (Antenatal and Neonatal Guidelines, Education and Learning System) program at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) Center for Distance Health in Little Rock, Ark. started monitoring women participating in a new telehealth study. The mHealth Postpartum Monitoring study includes women who during pregnancy were diagnosed as having pre-eclampsia, a condition of extreme hypertension.

“Our goal is to see if earlier discharge for women with pre-eclampsia can be safe for them with careful home monitoring,” said Donna Ussery, R.N., a nurse project manager in the UAMS Center for Distance Health.

Using medical equipment they take home, the women collect data about their own oxygen saturation, blood pressure and weight. Through a wireless connection, the data goes to the ANGELS Call Center, where it is monitored by triage nurses.

If the readings exceed certain parameters, an alert is set off and a nurse calls to evaluate her health and give advice that may range from rest to going to an Emergency Department for evaluation.

Ten women in 2014 completed monitoring periods, which last two weeks. Early results have been positive.

Sarah Rhoads-Kinder, Ph.D., principal investigator in the study and assistant professor in the UAMS College of Medicine Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, helped secure a $20,000 grant from the UAMS Translational Research Institute to fund a research study using the program in 2015.

Nafisa Dajani, M.D., associate professor and Pat Magann, M.D., professor, in the Division of Maternal-Fetal Medicine in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology are study co-investigators. Christina Serrano, Ph.D., a University of Arkansas Sam M. Walton College of Business assistant professor specializing in health informatics, also is a study research partner.

Dr. Sarah Kinder and Donna Ussery will both be involved at the South Central Telehealth Forum in Jackson, Miss. on March 2.  Please take this opportunity to discuss this program with them in person.

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Benefits for Providers

Hospitals and providers throughout Tennessee and surrounding states can consult with Vanderbilt specialists through telemedicine, offering their patients subspecialty care without long trips. For regional providers, Vanderbilt Telemedicine offers:

• High clinical quality
• Higher efficiency
• Rapid-response consults in subspecialty areas
• Direct feedback from experienced specialists without the need to travel to Nashville
• Reduced health care costs
• Ability to admit complex patients and offer convenient care close to home

A recent research study with Williamson Medical Center in Franklin, Tenn. showed that 85% of patients who received 24/7 teleneurology services from Vanderbilt were able to be admitted to WMC. These patients received excellent care with positive outcomes while staying closer to home. In some cases these patients received emergent specialty stroke care that can avert significant brain damage.

“It has been a distinct pleasure to work with the Vanderbilt neurologists in developing the teleneurology program that we now have at WMC,” said Starling C. Evins, M.D., chief medical officer at WMC.

We are proud to have Dr. David Charles and Amber Humphrey, both of the Vanderbilt Telemedicine program, on our agenda of speakers at the South Central Telehealth Forum. They will lead a session on Adult & Geriatric Telemedicine. We encourage anyone interested in Teleneurology to participate!

Check out this video to learn more about Vanderbilt’s Teleneurology program!

The post Get to Know Vanderbilt Telemedicine appeared first on LearnTelehealth.

The University of Mississippi Medical Center’s (UMMC) Center for Telehealth, led by Kristi Henderson, DNP, NP-BC, FAEN, is working to improve medical services in Mississippi. In over half of Mississippi counties, patients must travel more than 40 minutes to receive specialty health care. UMMC is providing remote medical care, health education and public health services through telehealth. Since 2003, the program has helped more than half a million rural Mississippians. They offer services in over 30 different medical specialties.

We are proud to have Dr. Henderson as our Master of Ceremonies at the upcoming South Central Telehealth Forum on March 2.  Also, we will hear from Dr. Alan Jones, Michael Osborne and Greg Hall, all of UMMC, on the topic of Adult and Geriatric Telemedicine. We hope you will join us and participate in the discussion! We also wish to take this opportunity to thank the Mississippi Telehealth Association for their support of our upcoming conference. We sincerely appreciate all the work you do for Mississippi!

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No doubt, 2015 is off and running! It is definitely an interesting time in the life of healthcare, but especially here in Arkansas.

The Arkansas 90^th General Assembly convened on Monday, January 12 with a full head of steam. The current General Assembly is controlled by a Republican House, Senate and Administration for the first time since the reconstruction era. UAMS hosted on January 22 our newly elected Governor Asa Hutchinson (R) for his press conference outlining the future of healthcare here in Arkansas. In the overview we were encouraged with his mentioning of the importance of telehealth in helping to accomplish these objectives.

There are two big legislative items that the UAMS Center for Distance Health will be following closely this session. Arkansas is completely surrounded by other southern states who didn’t take the Medicaid Expansion part of the Affordable Care Act. Ours was modified to where the expansion was administered by private insurance companies, hence named the Private Option plan. Currently filed is SB 96, “To Create the Arkansas Health Reform Act of 2015”. Currently the bill as is would extend the Private Option plan through December 31, 2016. In SB 96 they have formed a task force to determine the date in 2017, as well as looking at ways to administer healthcare more efficiently which includes “optimized use of telemedicine”.

Running parallel with this bill is SB 133 to “Encourage the use of telemedicine, improve access to care and to authorize reimbursement and regulation of services provided through telemedicine”.  We have worked very closely with our legislators to ensure with SB 133 the patients interest always comes first. We are encouraged with the Arkansas e-Link network that exists and in the current restructuring of healthcare this will be a great synergistic affect for our patients and providers across the state.

Arkansas continues to look to be a leader with telehealth, not only with this current legislation, but continuing to pioneer in the “what’s next” and not looking back.

Michael Manley, RNP, MNSc
AR SAVES Director
Director of Outreach
UAMS Center for Distance Health

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Have you been thinking about developing a statewide telemedicine program but don’t know where to start or what to expect?  We have just the perfect event for you!  “Developing a Statewide Telemedicine Program” is one of the pre-conference sessions on March 1.  Terri Imus, RN will lead you through a detailed overview of how the Arkansas Hand Trauma program was implemented. You will learn about personnel, technical, and administrative requirements and what lessons were learned during this implementation. You will also learn about the creation of the statewide image repository.  This one is for big thinkers with big plans!

This course will be 2 ½ hours long and leave plenty of time for your questions. It will be held from 12:30 pm to 3:00 pm, Sunday, March 1 at the Jackson Hilton Hotel.  Sign up today to ensure your seat  – limited space is available!

https://learntelehealth.org/sctf2015/

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We are so pleased with the lineup of speakers we were able to confirm for this year’s South Central Telehealth Forum.  The depth of knowledge in this team of presenters will bring something new to the table for everyone who attends.  We are especially excited to bring you one of the country’s leading Telehealth reimbursement gurus!

Our Keynote Speaker, Nina Antoniotti, RN, MBA, PhD, of Marshfield Clinic Telehealth Network, has over twenty years of experience in hospital-based health care. In 2001, Dr. Antoniotti received an award from the Office for the Advancement of TeleHealth, HRSA, for her pioneering efforts in the development of TeleHealth. She has been involved in the development of national technology and operational guidelines for TeleHealth standards and has presented at regional and national TeleHealth/Telemedicine and Technology conferences in the areas of integration, business plan development, clinical services, evaluation, HIPAA and TeleHealth, and needs assessments for TeleHealth.

In the meantime, here are some videos to help you trek through the reimbursement jungle! And we hope to see you at the South Central Telehealth Forum in Jackson, MS on March 2!

Strategies for Financial Viability – SCTF 2014

Telehealth Sustainability Roundtable – SCTF 2013

Telehealth Reimbursement – SCTF Thought Conference – Dr. Kristi Henderson

Telemedicine Billing and Reimbursement – Roy Kitchen

The post Telemedicine Reimbursement Ninja! appeared first on LearnTelehealth.

School-based telehealth allows for children to connect to health care professionals while remaining at school, which reduces school absences and allows parents to remain at work.

Dr. North and CRHI launched the MY Health-e-Schools program to provide access to comprehensive school-based health care via telemedicine at three small schools in Mitchell and Yancey counties in western North Carolina. Over the past four years the Health-e-Schools program has grown to now provide access to care for 8,000 students at 22 schools in Mitchell, McDowell, and Yancey counties. The program received the American Telemedicine Association’s 2014 Presidential Award for Health Care Delivery, Quality, and Innovation.

Dr. Phillips was involved in the creation of Project CHART, which stands for Children’s Healthcare Access for Rural Texas.

The 2015 South Central Telehealth Forum will take place on Monday, March 2, 2015 in Jackson, Mississippi at the Jackson Hilton Hotel. Telehealth experts from Arkansas, Mississippi, and Tennessee will give presentations and lead discussions on telehealth in our region. The keynote address will be “Telehealth in the Age of Digital Health Care” presented by Nina M. Antoniotti, RN, MBA, PhD, Director of Telehealth Business, Marshfield Health System. Dr. Antoniotti is an expert in reimbursement.  Register today!

Check out our new video on the “5 Benefits of School-based Telehealth”.

The post New School-based Telemedicine Track added to SCTF2015 appeared first on LearnTelehealth.

RHAT celebrated its 20^th birthday at this year’s conference – congratulations, RHAT! Over this past year, the organization hired its first full-time Executive Director, Sandy Hayes, MPH. Other big news from the organization includes with the work of legislative advocates and sponsors, they passed their first piece of legislation. Rural Tennesseans will soon benefit from a requirement that insurance companies pay for telehealth services.

Telehealth was definitely in the air and was discussed during the pre-conference session, “Grant Seeking: Dos, Don’ts, and Getting Your Food in the Door.” Several school district representatives were in attendance, and school telehealth was top of mind for them.  We reinforced the importance of building relationships with physicians to make this a possibility. Telehealth is ripe for growth in Tennessee.

The post Notes from the Road – Rural Health Association of Tennessee (RHAT) Conference – Pigeon Forge, TN appeared first on LearnTelehealth.

Carl and Amy began their week in Nashville, TN at the Tennessee Hospital Association Exposition.  With over 500 attendees, it was a large audience to promote Telehealth.  We heard concern over the Tennessee board of Medical Examiners’ proposal for Telemedicine regulation. You can read more about the proposal  here and here.  The SCTRC will keep watch for the outcome of this issue. Whatever happens, we will be happy to see growth in Telemedicine in the region to aid in reaching the entire population with healthcare!

Later in the week, the South Central Telehealth Resource Center manned a booth at the Mississippi Academy of Family Physicians Conference in Memphis, TN.  Forty-nine physicians were in attendance for their three-day event. Those we spoke to had no doubt that Telemedicine was coming and were wondering how they would fit into the future healthcare scenario. We explained to them the value of building partnerships with specialists in the larger cities to hopefully work out a way for their patients to remain in their community and receive specialty care over Telemedicine. Our hope was to encourage them to receive their continuing education online when they could, which would save them money and time away from their practice. It is definitely a different way of thinking and will require a change in practice. We hope to aid in any concerns our physicians are facing.

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Mississippi nurses gathered in Biloxi, MS on October 23 and 24 for the Mississippi Nurses Association. This year’s theme was Trek Into the Future of Healthcare. Nothing could fit in better with that theme than Telehealth.

Representatives from the University of Mississippi Medical Center (UMMC) Center for Telehealth gave the lunch keynote address. Speakers included Tearsanee Carlisle, DNP, FNP; Jaime Wheeler, MSN, RN; and Cynthia Broome, BSN, RN.

Most Mississippians travel 40 minutes for specialty care. The goals of the UMMC Center for Telehealth are to increase patient access points, utilize Mississippi resources, build capacity, and build relationships. The group reinforced thatTelemedicine doesn’t take patients away from local providers. Instead, Telehealth’s goal is to fill the gaps.

They discussed several of the Center’s programs:  school Telehealth, corporate Telehealth pilot, eICU, and their diabetes pilot. They challenged conference attendees to make Mississippi a model state and rank as the healthiest of the 50 states!  They also encouraged them to continue the nursing process over the Internet to keep a personal connection with patients.

There is tremendous support for Telehealth in Mississippi, and we will continue to encourage their progress!

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