The Mississippi Delta region is expanding a new telehealth program to assist patients that are diabetic through a public-private partnership. The state faces a growing diabetes crisis, ranking second among all states nationwide in disease prevalence with more than 373,000 adults in the state living with some form of diabetes.
Governor Phil Bryant has joined with the University of Mississippi Medical Center (UMMC), North Sunflower Medical Center (NSMC), GE Healthcare, Intel-GE Care Innovations, and C Spire to establish the Diabetes Telehealth Network (DTN) to provide more consistent and timely access to clinicians through the use of telehealth technology in homes.
The DTN will begin recruiting patients this spring in the Mississippi Delta to participate in an 18 month remote care management program. The program that is going to fuse technology with UMMC specialists is designed to improve the health of participants while also reducing the total cost of care.
Grant funding from USDA and the Appalachian Regional Commission will provide a three year $578,360 grant through the Distance Learning and Telemedicine Loan and Grant program. The grant is titled “Telemedicine Emergency and Specialty Care for Appalachia in North Mississippi” (TESCAN) to the University of Mississippi Medical Center.”
The funding will help to expand the number of healthcare delivery sites throughout the state linked to the Medical Center by a state-of-the-art telemedicine network to 104 sites. The grant funding will provide the capital equipment needed for the Medical Center’s Telehealth Program to serve ten additional sites, including nine Appalachian counties, and one Mississippi Delta county.
Medical providers in the rural areas will be connected with the state’s only academic medical center and trauma center. The grant will position UMMC as a “hub site” for each of the county-based hospitals and will ultimately reach 168,862 additional rural residents.
According to the Director of Telehealth at UMMC, Dr. Kristi Henderson, “This program can help improve care coordination and strengthen connections between clinicians and patients as well as serve as a proof-of-concept as we look to expand this model geographically and to other diseases.”
For more information, go to www.umc.edu.