Tuesday, Feb 8 2011 6:25PM
Telehealth services will allow patients in rural areas to communicate with doctors through a computer.
Healthcare organizations from Hawaii and Alaska have teamed up in order to develop and expand telemedicine programs to serve rural communities.
Representatives from the University of Hawaii and the Alaska Federal Health Care Partnership said the main goal of the agreement is to bring competitive healthcare services to more people for a lower cost. Sven-Erik Bursell, an associate at the University of Hawaii's Telehealth Research Institute, said both states are prime areas for telehealth because they both contain remote, outlying communities that can be difficult for doctors to reach.
The agreement focuses on the development of telehealth services, an expansion of telemedicine. While telemedicine allows professionals to use telecommunications technology to conduct consultations, telehealth aims to promote healthy living and preventative care.
Telemedicine is being used by many organizations to bring healthcare to rural areas. The U.S. Department of Agriculture is currently awarding more than $34 million in grants to expand its Distance Learning and Telemedicine Program in remote communities.