Vermont
Improving Rural Trauma Care, Education and Prevention Through Telemedicine
Type of Grant: TOP
Amount of Grant: $300,000
Non-Federal Support: $306,614
Date of Grant: October 1999-December 2002
Project Partners: University of Vermont and State Agricultural College, College of Medicine, Fletcher Allen Health Care
Contact: Michael Ricci
Phone: (802) 656-4216
Email: michael.ricci@uvm.edu
Rural emergency centers are often staffed by professionals who are not trained to care for multi-trauma patients-especially children. With the help of a TOP grant, the Improving Rural Trauma Care, Education and Prevention Through Telemedicine project has supplied telemedicine technology (real time, interactive videoconferencing) to several rural sites, providing specialist consultation and medical education, vital resources for isolated doctors and medical professionals.
The project has provided telemedicine technology that helps rural doctors treat severe trauma injuries. For example, a 41-year-old man with a severe closed head injury and facial fractures caused by a motorcycle accident was brought into a rural emergency department. After trying to resuscitate him for 40 minutes, a trauma surgeon at an urban hospital was asked to consult via telemedicine to the rural emergency room. The surgeon was able to successfully guide the on-site physician through a procedure that the rural physician hadn't performed in 20 years. The patient eventually went on to make an excellent recovery.
The Improving Rural Trauma Care, Education and Prevention Through Telemedicine project has succeeded on many levels. Not only have patients benefited from improved care, but the isolation that emergency medical professionals feel has also been reduced and educational opportunities have been increased. There have also been measurable cost savings for the centers, the patients, and medical insurers.
