The University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) https://uams.edu Institute for Digital Health & Innovation https://uamshealth.com/expertise/digital-health-innovation received a four year $3.8 million grant from HRSA https://www.hrsa.gov within HHS to establish a National Research Center.
The goal is to examine the effective use of digital health in rural areas and investigate how digital health practices affect patient outcomes and rural hospital profitability.
Each year, the project team will evaluate a different set of research areas. In the first year, the researchers will:
- Assess how the federal reimbursement policy for digital health remote patient monitoring affects hospital readmissions, length of stay, and total annual healthcare costs
- Review how obstetric digital health services are used, outcomes, and how spending differs by comparing two groups. The two groups include high risk pregnant women who receive digital health prenatal care, and high-risk pregnant women that do not receive digital health prenatal care
- Analyze the budget impact of a digital health program pertaining to behavioral health needs in rural areas and the affordability of implementing it at other academic medical centers nationwide
- Evaluate different models for delivering digital health stroke care and impact on clinical outcomes and the quality of care
- Study whether rural hospitals using digital health are more profitable than those that do not use digital health
“What we discover about the effectiveness of digital health in addressing these issues will help legislators and other policymakers focus funding where it can be of the most use in helping rural hospitals and patients,” said Hari Eswaran, PhD, Director of Research for the Institute for Digital Health & Innovation.