The University of Miami (UM) initiated telehealth services in 1973 with Jay Sanders M.D as the Principal Investigator helped to provide the first telehealth service in the state, to use nurse practitioners in telemedicine, and the first telemedicine program used in a correction facility. Today, UM has ongoing initiatives in tele-dermatology, tele-trauma, humanitarian and disaster response relief using telehealth, school telehealth services, and acute teleneurology or telestroke.
While many of the UM’s telehealth activities reach local communities, others reach outside of Florida. For example, telehealth provided Haiti with earthquake relief and teledermatology has been made available to cruise line employees. Telehealth communications are also used to monitor patients in hospitals and to provide education and training exercises.
UM has also used telemedicine to work with the military enabling robots to treat injured soldiers. The doctor is able to operate the robot from a control station using a joystick, and since the control station is on a laptop, the provider can operate the robot from any location with a wireless connection.
UM along with other designated trauma centers participates in the Florida Emergency Trauma Telemedicine Network (FETTN). Coordinated by the Department of Health (DOH), the FETTN makes it possible to treat trauma patients between trauma centers and community or rural hospitals.
Trauma centers and their satellites as well as the rural hospitals that currently participate in the FETTN are not reimbursed for consultations and treatment services provided within the telemedicine network.
In other projects, the Children’s Medical Services Network (CMS) is authorized to provide specified telemedicine services. The University of Florida’s (UF) pediatric endocrinology staff provides telehealth services to diabetic patients and patients with other endocrinology diseases via telehealth in the Daytona Beach area.
An additional partnership with the Institute for Child Health Policy at UF now refers children in Southeast Florida with special healthcare needs to community health centers via telehealth for nutritional, neurological, and orthopedics for consults.
Also in Florida, the Child Protection Team (CPT) program under CMS uses a telemedicine network to perform child assessments. The CPT is a medically directed multidisciplinary program that works with local Sheriff’s offices and the Department of Children and Families in cases of child abuse and neglect to supplement investigative activities.
The CPT patient is seen at a remote site where a registered nurse, physician, or advanced registered nurse practitioner located at the hub site directs the exam. The hub sites are comprehensive medical facilities offering a wide range of medical services. Hub sites are important to use, since remote sites tend to be smaller facilities that may lack medical diversity. In 2013, CPT telehealth services were made available at 14 sites with 437 children provided medical assessments via telemedicine.