HHS programs and priorities benefiting from broadband / health IT

HHS - Indian Health Service (IHS)


Health care is being improved in all 12 areas of the Indian Health Service (IHS). Leading clinical telehealth applications include: tele-radiology, tele-cardiology, tele-behavioral health, tele-dermatology, and tele-ophthalmology.

The IHS-JVN (Joslin Vision Network) Tele-ophthalmology Program demonstrates how broadband can be used to deliver innovative services.

* Patients in 57 Indian health facilities spanning 15 states currently receive comprehensive diabetic eye care services through the program.
* To date, the program has performed more than 21,000 remote interpretations from a distributed tele-ophthalomology reading center in Arizona.
* The IHS-JVN program demonstrates how telehealth-based services can help identify, manage, and prevent diabetic retinopathy - a leading cause of blindness for American Indian and Alaska Native people.

Broadband also enables critical capacity for health IT systems that support daily health service delivery across the Indian health system through the IHS Resource and Patient Management System, the IHS Electronic Health Record, the VA VistA Imaging program, and the Alaska Federal Health Care Access Network.

For information on the IHS' health IT work, visit: www.ihs.gov/CIO/ca/icare/index.asp.

HHS - The Health Research and Services Administration (HRSA)

HRSA works to increase and improve the use of health IT to meet the needs of underserved people, including those who are uninsured, isolated or medically vulnerable. Over the past 10 years, HRSA has invested more than $100 million in health IT improvements in Community Health Centers to help improve patient care as well as the centers' financial and business operations.

In Fiscal Year 2007, HRSA awarded 63 new grants, valued at more than $56 million, to advance health IT and telemedicine in health centers and Critical Access Hospitals in 35 states and the District of Columbia. These funds will support EHRs in more than 170 health centers representing over 900 sites and serving more than two million patients. The grants will also support the establishment of 16 regional health information exchange pilots that link primary, post-acute, acute, and tertiary care providers to improve coordination of care in these rural communities.

In addition, in FY 2007, HRSA provided over $6.8 million dollars for specific grants and contracts to advance the use of telehealth services around the nation.

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