About Us
The team associated with this project has significant experience in the area of telehealth. All three principals have worked for a number of years in this field. Our backgrounds are complementary and include clinical, educational, and outreach and systems-building expertise. Together, we bring a synergy and set of skills to the table that allow a multi-disciplinary vision for telehealth planning. We describe our major projects as illustrations.
Telehealth Connections: Telehealth Connections is a multi-pronged
initiative funded by the federal Maternal and Child Health Bureau (MCHB)
with generous matching support from the Florida Department of Helath, Children’s
Medical Services (CMS). The overall goal of the Telehealth Connections project
is to build a sustainable medical home for children with special health
care needs in the safety net. The project uses Community Health Centers
as the center point of the medical home. We use videoconferencing technology
to evaluate children who meet screening criteria for special health care
needs and to facilitate enrolling them in insurance and appropriate services
with CMS. Once children are enrolled in CMS, they can come to the center
to videoconference with their care coordinator at CMS. In addition, Telehealth
Connections provides support to the community. We conduct family-to-family
community outreach efforts using grandmothers as lay health ambassadors.
Since we began, we have helped over 400 families apply for health insurance.
Families report high levels of satisfaction with the videoconferencing technology.
Using this technology simplifies and shortens the evaluation and enrollment
process for children and families. Please visit our website for more information:
www.telehealthconnections.ichp.ufl.edu.
FITE Diabetes: Florida Initiative in Telehealth and Education (FITE) was established through a contract with the Florida Department of Helath, Children’s Medical Services (CMS) to provide health care to children with diabetes enrolled in the Daytona Beach CMS Area Office. The families stay in Daytona while Dr. Toree Malasanos talks and sees them from the hub clinic in Gainesville. Web-based animated education is available 24/7 for all the families in Florida. Patients and their parents were extremely satisfied with the telemedicine clinic, with 100% saying they would prefer the video conference system with the doctor rather than travel 2 1/2 hours to Gainesville. With the improved access to the doctors and nurses in Gainesville the families called for help sooner and went to the hospital or emergency rooms less. The program actually saved money for the state by keeping the children out of the hospitals and emergency rooms.
UF Center for Telehealth: The University of Florida (UF) Center for Telehealth has several years of experience integrating telehealth into clinical practice. Jeff Loomis, Associate Director has approximately 8 years experience in Telehealth, beginning with the U.S. Navy’s telemedicine program. The Center is currently active in two major telehealth projects. The first project, Alzheimer’s Caregiver Support Online (AlzOnline) has been active for 5 years, and is the result of teamwork between the State of Florida Department of Elder Affairs and the UF Center for Telehealth. The project goal is to provide caregivers of elders with Alzheimer's and other progressive dementias with a place where they can come and participate in online caregiver education and support classes and find the latest information on caregiving. In the second project, Jeff is working with the UF College of Dentistry, integrating Digital Radiography throughout the College and community clinics, and is consulting in the development of remote dental teleconsultation. The goal of this project is to increase educational opportunities for residents serving in the community clinics and increase access to specialty dental care.
