Dr. Deborah Birkmire-Peters, Program Director, PBTRC gave an invited presentation entitled “ Resources for Telehealth in Hawaiʻi” to the 11th Annual Hawaiʻi Medicare Rural Hospital Flexibility Program Conference on October 27, 2011.

The presentation covered:

1. A brief definition of telehealth and a short history of telehealth.
2. An overview of Medicare benefit policy telehealth guidelines.
3. A discussion of credentialing, insurance, and licensure.
4. The costs and benefits of telehealth to critical access hospitals (CAHs).
5. An overview of the Telehealth Resource Center Program funded through HRSA / Office of Rural Health Policy (ORHP) / Office for the Advancement of Telehealth (OAT), to include services provided.
6. A discussion of barriers and challenges to the implementation of services provided via telehealth specific to Hawaiʻi.

Mississippi faces a shortage of emergency physicians in rural areas. In 2003 University of Mississippi Medical Center launched TelEmergency which links ER doctors in Jackson, Mississippi to nurse practitioners and patients in 15 rural hospitals via live interactive video feed.