Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced awards for 52 distance learning and telemedicine projects totaling $14 million to take place in 29 states. The projects include 19 distance learning projects, 12 telemedicine projects and one combined project. Nearly half of the total funding will go to counties where the minority population is greater than 30 percent. Another 18 percent will benefit in areas where the Native American population exceeds 30 percent.
A partial list of the DLT projects:
· $149,094 was awarded to the Appalachian College of Pharmacy located in rural Virginia to enable better management of chronic diseases specifically targeting diabetes and primary health needs in the southwest corner of the state
· $118,716 will be used by the Professional Home Care Health Care Agency to purchase and install home health equipment and devices
· $313,626 to be used by U.P Health Care Network to purchase specialized electrocardiogram equipment and software to create an eight-state telemedicine network to manage the information collected and send it to cardiologists and technicians
· $262,068 will be used to help Saint Francis Medical Center purchase equipment for the first regional telestroke and teletrauma program in the medically-underserved region of Southeastern Missouri
· $119,833 will be used by Garrison Memorial Hospital to acquire automated medication dispensing units, document cameras, and computers for audio and video contact in a telepharmacy project
· $414,942 will be used by Samaritan Health Services, Inc. to purchase and install video conferencing technology to expand the delivery of mental healthcare
· $401,636 will be used by Avera Health to purchase telemedicine equipment for 17 participating hospitals, clinics, and long term care facilities in a 63-end user telemedicine network covering the multi-state frontier and rural territory of the Northern Great Plains
Go to www.rurdev.usda.gov/supportdocuments/rdDLT2012ProjectList.pdf for a complete list of the DLT awards.
