Health IT projects link rural vets to providers

Several projects aim to conect veterans, particularly those in rural areas, with their healthcare providers, according to a post on the Office of the National Coordinator (ONC) for Health IT blog, Health IT Buzz.

Brett Coughlin, ONC health information specialist, wrote the post in which he cites a new pilot launched by the White House Rural Health Council and the Veteran-Initiated Electronic Care Coordination Project.

An estimated 47 million people live in rural America, which makes up 84 percent of land area and is 18 percent of the total population, Coughlin wrote. "While the federal government is working from the top down to help rural patients get access to better care using health IT, states are also working on the same types of projects from the bottom up."

Coughlin shared the story of Earl Wilson Ferguson MD, PhD, a former Air Force physician who worked on some of the first health IT programs with NASA and who  just completed the Digital 395 project in California, bringing broadband to 36 rural communities. Ferguson is a cardiologist who practices at Ridgecrest Regional Hospital, and from his home and has found that 80 percent of patients with chest pain don't need to be transferred for more tests. That eliminates transportation costs as well as the cost of further testing.

Overlying the effort to hook up vets with their data is another program to help them get a job in health IT. Vets who are mustering out or unemployed get informatics training under a Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) program, both helping the vets and the organizations that need trained health IT professionals. Some 50,000 health IT workers are going to be needed over the next 10 years.

Read the complete post.