Development, implementation, application and evaluation of practical telecommunication and information technologies that (a) enhance the efficiency and cost-effectiveness of current health care services, education, and research and (b) enable new health system dimensions and approaches made possible only through use of these technology.

Specific focus areas:

• Healthcare access by and service to rural and underserved populations, including the development of community business models for local sustainability of the required technology and telecommunication infrastructure
• Chronic disease management in real life settings through use of remote monitoring of physiologic measurements, intelligent management and display of captured information, and use of wireless systems to mobilize both patients and clinicians
• Empowering first responders in critical circumstances where time-to-intervention requirements compromise healthcare service delivery
• Improving rural emergency room access to specialty consultations by delivering diagnostic quality video over limited throughput mobile telemedicine networks
• Networking rural communities to enable regional sharing of scarce medical resources and speciaity expertise.  Linking these rural networks to tertiary centers to access expertise and information repositories that cannot be maintained locally
• Improved health maintenance using access to healthy lifestyle and behavior information. Early disease recognition using telecommunication and information technology enhance disease screening
• Clinical outcome and socio-economic impact evaluation of the use of telemedicine and telehealth interventions

For both patients/consumers and clinicians/providers, ideal healthcare would encompass the delivery of necessary and highest quality health services and education to those in need, at the point of need, and at the time of need.  Advanced telecommunication and information technologies enable major steps in the direction of that goal.  Enabling access to, and delivery of, new health and health-related services that are inconceivable, and even impossible, without these tele-technologies, is essential.

Acute Care:  Enabling mobile clinicians to evaluate the need for thrombolytic therapy for stroke victims in rural hospitals (remote brain scan and stroke scale examination) and heart attack victims in the field (12-lead electrocardiograms displayed on mobile wireless handhelds). Linking rural emergency rooms with tertiary center emergency room staff. Using compression algorithms to transmit diagnostic quality video of region of interest over limited throughput mobile wireless networks.

Chronic Care:  Mental health services to remote and culturally unique populations using minimal bandwidth HIPAA-compliant videoconferencing (Georgia Southern University, North Georgia College and State University, Alabama Coalition for a Healthier Black Belt). Facilitating capture of real life data in diabetes, hypertension, and asthma for improved patient and clinician management decisions and behavior modification.  Increasing work-efficiency and reducing travel time of home-health nurses.

Disease Screening: Using Internet-connected touch-screen kiosks in community settings to educate and perform medical risk assessment in underserved and unmotivated populations

Information to the Bedside: Provide clinicians in small rural hospitals with access to tertiary center drug information databases and decision support systems through wireless handhelds brought to the point of care.

Sustainable Business Models for Telehealth Technologies: Develop approaches and business models for rural community-based collaborations to support and sustain telehealth infrastructures without reliance on grant funding

Socio-Economic Impact of Telemedicine and Telehealth Technologies: Impact of globalization on healthcare and socio-economic impact of telemedicine

Georgia is recognized as a world leader in the academic and commercial development of telecommunication and information technologies. Georgia’s health-related research resources and capabilities are similarly recognized. Georgia is committed to the growth of each of these resources and an environment has been created in Georgia to encourage these two academic groups to work with industry, business, and government. Telehealth’s best chance of achieving its potential is through the proactive collaboration of this broad base of experience and expertise.