The State of Mississippi faces several barriers that hinder the state from always delivering much needed healthcare such as limited financial resources, geographic issues, and a shortage of specialists in rural communities.
The University of Mississippi Center for Telehealth www.umc.edu/telehealth has worked for a number of years to improve healthcare in the State. Starting 10 years ago, the telemedicine program began at the university with the launch of the TelEmergency program.
The University of Mississippi Medical Center (MMMC) Emergency Department www.umc.edu/emergencymedicine is testing Google Glass for use in TelEmergency. Google Glass has the possibility to assist with the connection of multiple people in separate locations. Pristine, Inc. http://pristine.io , located in Austin TX as the only HIPAA compliant telehealth solution for Google Glass has issued the equipment to the UMMC Center for Telehealth for a trial run.
Today, the telemedicine program has expanded in over 100 sites across the state. The Telestroke program has been very successful and has had a huge impact on stroke care. Since the telestroke program began, many rural hospitals now have access to emergency stroke care which has resulted in UMMC having the highest t-PA administration rate in the state.
Recently, the UMMC telemedicine program has expanded and includes their School Telehealth Program. The program works in partnership with the schools to provide care where the students are via telemedicine.
Another program called the eCorporate Health program provides episodic care to employees by enabling access to a provider while at work and allows employees with urgent care needs to connect to a virtual e-visit with a UMMC telehealth provider.
The telehealth provider is able to assess, diagnose and recommend a treatment plan by producing an audio/visual connection on the desktop monitor and providing e-prescribing so that the employee can pick up the medications the same day.
The Center for Telehealth has been working closely with the UMMC MIND Center www.ummchealth.com/mindcenter to develop an Alzheimer’s telemedicine program. This program enables UMMC geriatric physicians to bring specialized dementia care to patients across the state via a secure telemedicine system. This program includes health education and public health services in addition to remote medical care.