Initiative Launched To Eliminate Health Disparities
By Wendy Grafius, contributing writer
Public/Private coalition formed to expand access to quality care across Mississippi
Mississippi Governor Phil Bryant has teamed with the University of Mississippi Medical Center (UMMC), North Sunflower Medical Center (NSMC), GE Healthcare, Intel-GE Care Innovations, and C-Spire to form a ground-breaking diabetes telehealth network to address the state’s growing diabetes crisis. The public-private partnership is expected to expand access to quality care for patients in underserved areas, improve outcomes, and reduce the total cost of care.
With more than 373,000 adults in Mississippi living with some sort form of diabetes, the state ranks second in the nation in disease prevalence. Medical expenses due to diabetes reached $2.74 billion in Mississippi in 2012, according to the American Diabetes Association. In the Mississippi Delta region, one of the more medically underserved and poverty-stricken areas of the state and country, 12.1 percent of adults were diagnosed with type 2 diabetes in 2010, with 293 adults dying from complications. “We know that diabetes is one of the foremost chronic diseases in Mississippi,” said Dr. Kristi Henderson, director of telehealth at UMMC. “This program can help improve care coordination and strengthen connections between clinicians and patients, and will serve as a proof of concept as we look to expand this model geographically and to other diseases.”
This spring, up to 200 diabetes patients from Sunflower County in the Delta region will be recruited to take part in an 18-month remote care management program, expanding a growing list of specialty services that UMMC’s Center for Telehealth currently offers. Audio/visual link-ups at Mississippi clinics and hospitals provide care for patients in cardiology, dermatology, pediatrics, emergency medicine, and stroke. The Diabetes Telehealth Network reworks the concept by providing diabetes patients with Internet-capable tablets which are equipped with the Care Innovations Guide platform. Those patients will use the tablets to report weight, blood pressure, and glucose levels on a daily basis with clinicians at North Sunflower Medical Center, the launch site for this and other specialties.
“We will bring UMMC’s specialists, including the pharmacist, the diabetic educator, the nurse, the endocrinologist, and the ophthalmologist, to the Mississippi Delta through this technology,” said Henderson. “We will be able to provide interactive video consults, deliver patient education, and engage with the patient daily to meet their needs. Until now, this type of coordinated care that engages the patient in their home setting was simply not an option.”
With data delivered on a daily basis, caregivers at North Sunflower will have a complete view of a patient’s status with the ability to adjust care, helping the patient to avoid serious complications, and hopefully, helping to change patient awareness and behavior. “This revolutionary telehealth effort will deliver top-notch medical care to patients in one of Mississippi’s most medically underserved areas, providing a new lifeline for health and disease management,” said Governor Phil Bryant. “Innovations like this also spur further growth and economic benefit in the medical industry. I thank Dr. Henderson and all of the partners for working to make this program a reality.”
Located in Jackson, Mississippi, UMMC is the state’s only academic medical facility. Five science schools, medicine, nursing, health-related professions, dentistry, and graduate studies as well as a site for pharmacy clinical training, enable the medical center to satisfy its mission to educate tomorrow’s healthcare professionals. A second mission, to provide high quality care to residents of the state, is carried out in five hospitals in the University Hospitals and Health System. Conducting innovative research to improve human health is ongoing as the third part of UMMC’s mission.
SOURCE: University of Mississippi
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