1. State&geoCd=48 https://www.ttuhsc.edu/telemedicine/default.aspx
Exploring the History and the Frontier of Telemedicine, with Examples of the Utilization of Telemedicine in the Field of Psychiatry in Rural West Texas Areas
Anastasia Ruiz, M.D., Jessica Nelson, M.D., and Terry McMahon, M.D.
Department of Psychiatry, Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, Lubbock, TX
Background
Telemedicine was initially utilized by NASA
in the 1960s to provide healthcare to Astronauts in Space. According to NASA, telemedicine “has spin-off potential, in that space technology employed in the basic design of a flight system may be extremely beneficial to improving the quality of health care delivery here on Earth”. The STARPAHC program (Space Technology Applied to Rural Papago) was created in Arizona in 1973 as a “necessary step for improving health care delivery for both astronauts and ordinary Americans”. The program operated into the
1980s---using mobile support to connected rural patients with physicians. This prototype program not only helped NASA design their telemedicine technology, it also explored the benefits of utilizing telemedicine in rural and underserved areas.
The frontier of telemedicine
Doctors Without Borders utilizes telemedicine to collaborate a network of
specialized physicians around the world to treat difficult cases in remote and underserved areas around the globe.
NASA continues to recognize the importance of telemedicine for healthcare delivery to astronuts in the International Space Station and potential future space expeditors, as well as using this technology for people on Earth.
Mercy Health System’s Virtual Care Center is a “hospital without beds” that provides support via telemedicine for intensive-care units.
Many hospitals have remote consultation services, allowing patients to be assessed via telemedicine without traveling long distances. There are also companies that offer physician consultation to patient cross country. For example, companies like DocFlight offers physician expert advice to patients in China via telemedicine, where there is a large underserved population.
The Harris County Sheriff’s Office in Houston, Tx., equips deputies with iPads as part of a pilot program aimed at developing new forms of intervention for mentally ill individuals who become involved with law enforcement. Deputies are equipped with tablets that is connected to a psychiatrist. The psychiatrist assesses the patient via telemedicine on scene, and provides recommendations to law enforcement for the best disposition for the patient.
Examples of local application of telemedicine in psychiatry in West Texas and surrounding regions:
Sunrise Canyon Hospital is a Lubbock based psychiatric hospital operated by StarCare. It offers short term crisis stabilization for patients in Lubbock and a few surrounding counties. It partnered with JSA Health Telepsychiatry to provided telemedicine services.
Select mental health MHMR facilities in surrounding areas are providing telepsychiatry services in the clinics.
Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center Department of Psychiatry provides mental health care not only to Lubbock residents, but also to adolescents in the surrounding rural counties of the Texas Panhandle region using telemedicine in the TWITR project---Telemedicine Wellness, Intervention, and Triage Referral.
The Texas Tech HSC F. Marie Hall Institute for Rural and Community Health has a telemedicine program that is currently serving patients in multiple different specialities to meet their health care needs.
Identifying the problem As the map suggests on the right (data from the
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services), many counties in Texas are designated as mental health care professional shortage areas.
References
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services,
State&geoCd=48
Utilizing telemedicine in psychiatry:
Telepmedicine is a tool to address the mental health shortage problem. In recent years, it has been implemented in many local programs.
Space Technology Applied to Rural Papago Health Care