Thursday, March 13, 2008

UTMB Telemedicine Wins Award

The Electronic Health Network (EHN) telemedicine program at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston received a national award on March 11th at the annual conference of the State and Local Governments Benefits Association. The award was presented to UTMB for implementing a benefits program that has substantially reduced costs, increased member awareness, improved member education, and enhanced member wellness during the past year.

Dr. Alexander Vo, Executive Director of the AT&T Center for Telehealth Research and Policy at UTMB, said, “It is a tremendous honor to receive this prestigious recognition and it speaks volumes to the wonderful work and support that UTMB has provided to the telemedicine program.”

The UTMB Electronic Health Network was created in 2004 to centralize all of UTMB’s resources into one entity. The EHN was charged with integrating all health technology components into a single system to deliver medical care to benefits providers, patients, and payers in the healthcare environment.

UTMB’s services comprise the largest telemedicine operation in the world, with more than 300 locations and more than 60,000 patients helped annually. The telemedicine program has been recognized as one of the top telemedicine programs in the U.S., and has been inducted into the Smithsonian Permanent Research Collection for Innovation in Information Technology.