Trips to the doctor just got a whole lot easier for Sarah Ortega and her 2-year-old daughter, Salma.
The Stratford toddler became the first patient Monday to participate in a Texas Tech Health Sciences Center telemedicine initiative. The project allows doctors in Lubbock to consult through the Internet with pediatric patients and their families in rural parts of the state.
The university hopes to expand the project -- called Children's Healthcare Access for Rural Texans -- to 29 additional sites by fall 2010.
Speaking from the Stratford Family Medical Clinic, Ortega said before Monday's virtual visit the family traveled several times a year to El Paso, where specialists are treating her daughter's left-sided weakness.
"This is wonderful," Ortega said. Stratford, population 1,900, is one of many West Texas cities with no local physician and no hospital.
"I'm very impressed with the whole system," she said.
The $6.77 million program, funded by the Texas Health and Human Services Commission, will help children in rural and medically underserved regions get the care they need while relieving their families of the associated travel burdens, said John Lefforge, chief operating officer for the F. Marie Hall Institute for Rural and Community Health at Tech.
Lefforge said the program will cater to people on Medicaid from newborns through age 20.
The Texas Health and Human Services Commission highlighted the barriers for children in underserved areas to get medical care, Lefforge said.
"We decided we wanted to help make those services available," he said, explaining the help will come through high-resolution video cameras and screens that, when placed in community clinics, allow Tech specialists in Lubbock, Amarillo, El Paso and Permian Basin to visit from afar. The cameras, he said, allow physicians to see everything from the whole body to the tiny hairs on a child's arm.
"The images of a patient's ear or throat is the equivalent or better than what I see in my office," said Dr. Richard Lampe, HSC pediatrics chairman.
John Baldwin, HSC president, said Monday the new service "exemplifies our tripartite mission of clinical care, education and research."
While they are using the technology to serve rural West Texans, university researchers will also be learning more about the needs of such communities, Baldwin said.
To comment on this story:
sarah.nightingale@lubbockonline.com l 766-8796 shelly.gonzales@lubbockonline.com l 766-8747
HEALTH/New project allows doctors to consult with pediatric patients via Internet
Serving West Texas
Challenges in serving TTUHSC's 108 West Texas counties:
--98 are considered rural.
--22 have no physician.
--10 do not have a physician, a physician assistant or a nurse practitioner.
--21 do not have a community or clinic-based pharmacy.
--32 do not have a hospital.
--75 percent of the region is more than 90 miles from a comprehensive trauma hospital. To see more of the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.lubbockonline.com/. Copyright (c) 2009, Lubbock Avalanche-Journal, Texas Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.
Copyright (C) 2009, Lubbock Avalanche-Journal, Texas