Transmenu powered by JoomlArt.com - Mambo Joomla Professional Templates Club

Richlands News Press

Tue Oct 21, 2008 - 01:33 PM

By JIM TALBERT\Staff
TAZEWELL – A small clinic in Tazewell County will be able to utilize specialists at the University of Virginia under a grant from the federal government.
Congressman Rick Boucher announced Oct. 21 that a grant from the Health Resource Service Administration has been awarded to Tazewell Community Health to establish and equip a Telemedicine program.
The program will enable doctors at the clinic to utilize resources at the University of Virginia’s Medical Center. X-rays, lab slides and other images can be transmitted to the medical center at the same clarity as the original.
“The specialist can see and hear the patient and render an opinion with the same degree of certainty as if the patient had traveled to Charlottesville,’ Boucher said. The Tazewell site is one of three clinics funded under the federal grant.
The money will be used to purchase video conferencing equipment, computers, monitors, electronic stethoscope, standard documents camera and a high-resolution camera. A mobile colposcope will be purchased for use at all of the clinics operated by Southwest Virginia Community Health Systems.
A colposcope is used in the diagnosis of cervical cancer. Funding will also be provided for training the staff to use the equipment. The equipment will be in place and in service by the end of November.
“Once the equipment is in place and the staff trained, a patient may simply visit the Tazewell Clinic, and a specialist hundreds of miles away will perform an examination and render a diagnosis,’ Boucher said.
Tazewell Community Health has been in business two years and has seen 3,800 patients in that time period. Karen Rheuban, Medical Director of UVA’s office of telemedicine said the telemedicine program had made it possible for 13,000 people to get diagnostics and follow up treatment.
David Catron, chairman of the board of Southwest Virginia Community Health Systems said the program is badly needed in the area. He said the region experiences six percent of the deaths in the Commonwealth even though it has just two percent of the population.
Howard Chapman, director of the Southwest Virginia Community Health Systems said the program provides more than medical consulting.
He said specialists in counseling and other services would be available to help support groups and education. Chapman said the ability to link to UVA had resulted in establishment of a diabetes support group in one of the clinic’s locations.
The group operates six health clinics and one mental health clinic in southwest Virginia.