On National Rural Health Day, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced that USDA’s Distance Learning and Telemedicine (DLT) program has just awarded $20.4 million in FY 2014 grants. The grants provide access to medical services, improve educational opportunities, and supports Native American communities.
Some of the grants awarded for telemedicine projects went to:
- Whitman Hospital and Medical Center (WA &ID) for $500,000 to expand medical treatment and services by replacing outdated imaging equipment with new 3-D imaging technology, and to make network improvements
- Monongalia County General Hospital Company (WV) for $496,252 to connect specialists at the hospital in Morgantown with primary care providers and patients in rural but especially extremely remote locations
- University of Iowa for $498,973 to provide adult, pediatric, and geriatric healthcare for patients at 64 remote rural locations
- Southeast Alaska Regional Health Consortium for $284,424 o provided healthcare to 16,200 clients in 12 clinics in remote locations
- University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center for $448,887 to help primary care physicians in 11 remote rural communities treat patients with hepatitis C virus
- Good Samaritan Hospital (CA) for $417,560 to connect medical professionals at the LA hospital with providers and patients at six remote sites in Guam
- Greater Oregon Behavioral Health Inc. for $436,506 to link 10,000 patients in 12 rural counties with 32 community healthcare providers
- Medical University of South Carolina for $276,878 to provide maternity and pediatric healthcare in 15 remote rural areas
- Mountain State Health Alliance (TN &VA) for $169,200 to connect seven rural Appalachian hospitals to specialists at the Johnson City Medical Center in Tennessee
Go to www.rurdev.usda.gov/SupportDocuments/RD_DLTNewsReleaselist2014.pdf for a list of grant awards. For information on the DLT grants, go to www.rurdev.usda.gov/UTP_DLT.html.