IfG.CC -
Institute for eGovernment

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Rural Utilities Services Distance Learning and Telemedicine program is contributing to the expansion of telemedicine services by awarding a $213,564 grant to Essentia Health, an integrated health system serving patients in Minnesota, Wisconsin, North Dakota and Idaho. The telehealth award will grant 21 rural clinics and two hospital sites access to the telehealth network within Minnesota, Wisconsin, and North Dakota. Essentia Health applied for this grant in June and plans to match the award.

A press release says Dartmouth-Hitchcock and its Center for Telehealth have been awarded two grants totaling $998,356. Telemedicine equipment will be sent to six counties in rural New Hampshire and seven counties in rural Vermont. Counties receiving the equipment include Orange, Orleans, Rutland, Windham, and Windsor counties in Vermont and Cheshire, Coos, Grafton, Hillsborough, Merrimack, and Sullivan counties in NH.

The grant presentation was to be this afternoon.

Telemedicine provides patients who are in crisis at rural hospitals with access to nurses and other caregivers from CHI Health hospitals. The caregivers are known as rapid-response teams.

“Any of our schools can use this service,” Jefferson-Lewis Board of Cooperative Educational Services Superintendent Jack J. Boak said. “Our students can use this to receive 15 or more credits in high school.”

“The Community Connect program serves rural communities where broadband service is least likely to be available, but where it can make a tremendous difference in the quality of life for citizens,” Conner said. “The projects funded by these grants will help rural residents tap into the enormous potential of the Internet.”

The Office of Management and Budget and the Treasury Department today announced they recertified the departments of Interior, Treasury and Transportation and added USDA to be the support pylons of its shared services initiative.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture is accepting applications for loans to provide and expand broadband service in rural areas, Assistant to the Secretary for Rural Development Anne Hazlett announced Saturday.

“Modernizing the nation’s infrastructure to deliver high-speed internet service is essential in today’s global marketplace,” Hazlett said. “Broadband helps create jobs. It also helps rural areas offer the programs and services that strengthen economies and encourage growth. These loans will help maintain America’s economic competitiveness and connect rural communities to more opportunities.”

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced that the U.S. Department of Agriculture is accepting applications for its Distance Learning and Telemedicine grant program, which provides increased access to education, training and health care resources in rural areas.

“This program provides people who live and work in rural areas with better access to a variety of educational and health care services,” Vilsack said. “For example, because of the DLT program, students in rural areas can take advanced placement classes, residents can have access to specialized medical services not typically available, and many other benefits for rural communities.”

At March’s end, that project spread into Tennessee to fund electronic health record implementation as well as mobile and telehealth to rural providers across 10 counties wherein some 20,000 veterans are among the patient population.

The revised document reflects the continuing evolution of the NAIS, particularly with regard to identification devices available for official use within the system. It also provides further guidance to NAIS participants and other interested stakeholders.

More than 100,000 ranches and processors have registered their premises as part of the ID system. Under the partnership, industry will develop and maintain databases that contain animal movement information.

The Power of Telemedicine discussion will encourage the exchange of information, innovations and success stories involving the varied uses of telemedicine. This information is essential as Rural Development examines the Distance Learning and Telemedicine program (DLT) and works to improve program delivery to telemedicine practitioners, patients, institutions and others affected by this cutting-edge technology. The discussion site can be accessed at the usda.gov website.

The United States Department of Agriculture has announced that it will fund 45 telemedicine projects to increase access to healthcare in rural areas.

Agriculture secretary Tom Vilsack made the announcement Monday, saying more than $34.7 million in grants will be issued through USDA's distance learning and telemedicine program to fund 106 projects: 45 in telemedicine and 61 focused on distance learning services.

The loan to Open Range is expected to develop business and create new jobs in Alabama, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina and Wisconsin.

"Too many rural communities across the country still lack access to quality digital educational opportunities," Adelstein said. "These DLT funds will allow more than 5,000 students across 11 counties to use state-of-the-art video conferencing equipment to take advantage of advanced classes and interactive educational sessions offered by larger schools and universities. This financial support we are providing will enable small Colorado schools to bring leading educators directly into their rural classrooms."

The $30.2 million in USDA grants will fund 100 telemedicine and distance-learning programs in 34 states and one territory. Although USDA provided a full list of grantees, it was unclear how much of the money was going toward telemedicine rather than distance learning.

"Being selected as a Shared Service Center is an excellent opportunity for NFC," said Jerry Lohfink, NFC Director. "The selection of NFC is a tribute to the commitment of our staff and their drive to do more for their customers and the taxpayers by providing improved, innovative services at a low cost. We are excited to be part of an initiative that is projected to produce savings of $1.1 billion over 10 years."