Secretary Shalala Announces National Telemedecine* Initiative

National Institutes of Health by National Library of MedecineFOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, Tuesday, Oct. 8, 1996, Office of Public Information, Bob Mehnert, mehnert@nlm.nih.gov, Kathy Gardner, kcravedi@nlm.nih.gov

Saying that "telemedicine offers us some of our best and most cost-effective opportunities for improving quality and access to health care," on October 7, 1996 HHS Secretary Donna E. Shalala announced that the National Library of Medicine, a part of the National Institutes of Health, was funding 19 telemedicine projects, affecting rural, inner-city, and suburban areas, with a total budget of $42 million. "The projects we are supporting will evaluate the use of telemedicine in a wide variety of settings, all the way from the care of newborns and children with disabilities, to the elderly and chronically ill, and those needing a range of specialist care" Secretary Shalala said "These are imaginative and well-targeted projects that will help us determine how we can best use information via telemedicine for clinical decision-making."

The NLM-funded projects were announced in combination with a Health Care Financing Administration demonstration project that enables Medicare to pay for health care services delivered via telemedicine. "We want to put cutting edge communications technology to work helping improve health care for Americans" said Vice President Al Gore. "We are joining with academic centers, communities and the health care sector to move rapidly in developing the potential of telemedicine."

Dr. Donald A.B. Lindberg, Director of the National Library of Medicine and a pioneer in health care computing and communications, stated. "We believe that the use of telemedicine in these projects will show how we can improve the delivery of health care in rural America and in our inner cities. Telemedicine has particular promise for the provision of home care to the elderly and chronically ill. Remote 'visiting' nurses can reach homebound patients and avoid more costly interventions and premature institutionalization of these patients."

The 19 multi-year telemedicine projects, located in 13 states and the District of Columbia, will serve as models for: evaluating the impact of telemedicine on cost, quality, and access to health care; assessing various approaches to ensuring the confidentiality of health data transmitted via electronic networks; and testing emerging health data standards. The Agency for Health Care Policy and Research is co-funding one of the 19 projects.

Each project will review and apply recommendations from two National Academy of Sciences studies on criteria for evaluation of telemedicine and on best practices for ensuring the confidentiality of electronic health data. NLM is the principal funder of these studies, in collaboration with the Health Care Financing Administration, the Veterans Administration, and the National Institutes of Health Warren G. Magnuson Clinical Center. "Telemedicine: A Guide to Assessing Telecommunications in Health Care" (summary available at http://www.nap.edu/fresh/new/freshbooks.html, National Academy Press Bookstore) will be issued by the National Academy of Sciences' Institute of Medicine today. The final report of the National Research Council's Computer Science and Telecommunications Board study on preserving the confidentiality and security of electronic health data is scheduled for release in early 1997.

Shalala stated that projects will be funded to:

Provide health care to underserved center-city elderly and offshore islanders in California. The University of Southern California's Medical faculty will treat multiple underserved communities ranging from North Hollywood's center-city elderly and minorities to the relatively isolated offshore island of Catalina via state-of-the-art telemedicine systems. Patients will be cared for in their own locale by means of PacBell network transmittal of USC Emergency medicine support instead of traveling to distant specialists (e.g., By helicopter or board from Catalina). Contact: F.W. George III, MD University of Southern California Advanced Biotechnical Consortium 1537 Norfolk Street, DEI-5103 Los Angeles, CA 90033 Telephone: (213) 342-3671

Support rural primary care physicians consulting with remote specialists in West Virginia. A consortium of nine institutions led by the Concurrent Engineering Research Center of the West Virginia University will demonstrate the viability of secure clinical telemedicine on public telecommunication networks and show that its adoption as an integral part of an overall health care plan can result in cost savings and improved access to quality health care for rural populations. Rural primary care physicians, physicians' assistants, and other authorized users will have secure access to electronic medical records and patient monitor data, and be able to confer with collaborating health care providers at a distance in the treatment of patients. Contact: Ramana Reddy, Ph.D. Concurrent Engineering Research Center West Virginia University 886 Chestnut Ridge Road Morgantown, WV 26506 Telephone: (304) 293-7226 Fax: (304) 293-7541

Improve care to high risk newborns and their families in Massachusetts. Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center will use telemedicine to provide educational and emotional support to families of high risk newborns both during their hospitalization and following discharge. This innovative use of technology should increase parental understanding of their baby's continuing medical needs, and provide a clear cost savings. Prior to their baby's discharge from the hospital, parents will be able to observe its care via a television monitor in their home. Upon discharge, patient homes will continue to be connected via television to Beth Israel trial will examine the potential of telemedicine to decrease the cost of care for very low-birth weight infants by increasing the efficiency of care. Contact: Charles Safran, M.D., Principal Investigator Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center 350 Longwood Avenue Boston, MA 02115 Telephone: (617) 732-5925