Grant Awarded to Bring Broadband Into Pennsylvania Health Care Settings
| Date: June 23, 2008 |
Media Contact: |
Chuck Moran |
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Pennsylvania Medical Society |
| For Immediate Release |
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(717) 558-7820 |
(Harrisburg, Pa.) A statewide broadband health care initiative has been awarded a grant to move its efforts into a second phase that aims to provide broadband access to physicians without such service while improving speed and reliability of current users.
The Pennsylvania Medical Society was awarded a grant by the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development from the Broadband Outreach and Aggregation Fund (BOAF) to continue its ConnectTheDocs broadband initiative.
The grant will fund strategic statewide outreach and education efforts aimed at accelerating physician adoption of critical health information technologies, like electronic prescribing and electronic medical records. The Medical Society plans to offer educational programs and other resources that will help physicians overcome the barriers to technology adoption.
In addition, the grant will fund regionally specific projects in northwest Pennsylvania and the Bucks County area. The underlying goal of the initiative is to develop the telecommunications infrastructure that will support electronic health information exchange in Pennsylvania.
The grant will enable the Pennsylvania Medical Society to offer physicians in these targeted regions the opportunity to obtain or upgrade their broadband connections for a better price than they could get on their own. This is achieved through a group purchase arrangement. The Medical Society plans to include other important health care partners, such as pharmacies, hospitals, and senior care facilities in this initiative.
Earlier in the ConnectTheDoc project, researchers found that adoption of health information technology will help patients gain access to care; however, roadblocks such as the costs and expertise required to buy and operate the technology are making adoption in medical settings slower than desired. Further challenging some regions of Pennsylvania is limited access or affordable pricing for true high-speed broadband telecommunication networks to connect health care professionals.
According to a June 2008 ConnectTheDocs report the unique challenges presented by Pennsylvania’s large rural geography, as well as its aged population, test the future of health care access and delivery in the commonwealth. But, the study suggests that connecting doctors electronically through hi-tech communications tools, such as telemedicine, could help alleviate that problem.
For physicians, better telecommunications connectivity means they can effectively use new tools that improve the efficiency of their practice. Such tools include electronic prescribing, consulting electronically with specialists on radiology and other diagnostic tests, and communicating more quickly and efficiently with hospitals.
Patients whose physicians use these electronic tools benefit directly through decreased prescription errors, more timely access to records, and, ultimately, reduction in duplicate testing.
In Phase II of ConnectTheDocs, the Medical Society will continue to work in cooperation with the Pennsylvania Departments of Health and Community and Economic Development and the Governors Office of Health Care Reform. Affinity Technology Consultants assisted the Medical Society throughout the first phase of the ConnectTheDocs initiative and will continue to work with the Medical Society throughout the second phase.
The Pennsylvania Medical Society has been working to enhance the patient-doctor relationship since 1848. To learn more about the Pennsylvania Medical Society, visit its Web site at www.pamedsoc.org, or to learn about Pennsylvania-specific health issues, visit the Medical Society’s consumer Web site at www.myfamilywellness.org.
Affinity Technology Consultants is a Harrisburg, Pa.-based consulting company providing technology and telecommunications procurement, implementation, organization, and policy strategy. More information can be found at www.affinitytc.com.
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Last Updated: 8/6/2008