Foster the development, expansion and sustainability of telehealth programs throughout the Northeast.

Develop and maintain an online database of the status of telehealth in the Northeast.

Identify opportunities to improve policies for greater access to care through telehealth.

Connect knowledgeable and experienced telehealth mentors with organizations that are building their telehealth capabilities.

Serve as a key resource for helping to catalyze the introduction of telehealth technologies into the care delivery process

What is Telepharmacy? "Telepharmacy is working well in North Dakota. It is a great way to restore and retain pharmacy services for many remote rural communities throughout the state. Telepharmacy services produce the same quality as the traditional mode of delivery and provide some value-added features that are not found in traditional pharmacy practice." Dr. Charles D. Peterson, Dean, Professor, and Principal Investigator/Director, ND Telepharmacy Project, NDSU College of Pharmacy, Nursing, and Allied Sciences Full Article Epocrates prescription application gains traction in iPhone Healthcare IT News SAN MATEO, CA - In the first month it was available, the Rx drug and formulary software for the iPhone developed by technology company Epocrates was downloaded by more than 125,000 users, including 25,000 U.S. physicians, according to Epocrates executives. more TEN-HMS Study Demonstrates Clinical and Financial Efficacy of Home Telemonitoring The world's first large-scale, randomized prospective telemonitoring trial showed that home based telemonitoring reduced the number of days spent in hospital by 26% and led to an overall 10% cost savings compared to nurse telephone support. Home Telemonitoring also significantly improved survival rates relative to usual care and led to high levels of patient satisfaction. Full report pdf Telemedicine Industry Segment anticipates Huge Growth in Telehealth and Remote Patient Monitoring Nicole Wilson, Best Syndication News, May 25, 2008 Home Telehealth and Remote Patient Monitoring is expected to grow up to 70 percent in the next three to five years according to a report published by Insight and Intelligence.Full Article Telemedicine comes home Medicine: Telemedicine permits remote consultations by video link and even remote surgery, but its future may lie closer to home Full Article Telemedicine Is Crucial to Implementing Acute Stroke Therapy Telemedicine is crucial to providing timely therapy for acute stroke at community hospitals. There's only 1 FDA-approved drug for stroke: tPA. But many people who are treated for acute ischemic stroke at community hospitals don't get it.[1,2] Why not? Proposed use case: Store- and- Forward Medicine The American Health Information Community Chronic Care Workgroup, after extensive discussion within the workgroup and extensive consultation on the part of several workgroup members with industry experts, proposes a store-and-forward telemedicine provider-to-provider tele-consultation use case. We believe that this recommendation is of considerable utility to payers, providers and patients alike and, if adopted and acted upon by AHIC, is fully consistent with its mandate to help achieve the President's goal for most Americans to have access to secure electronic health records by 2014. Full Report Get ready to Google-ize your health records ORLANDO, Fla.--Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt will detail the company's plans for Google-izing the health care industry at a health care trade show on Thursday morning, starting with a consumer destination site called Google Health. Full Article States get help expanding telemedicine Modern technology allows specialists at major medical centers to diagnose and monitor faraway patients by remotely reviewing their records, analyzing medical images and consulting with them and their local physicians using high-tech video teleconferencing. In the future, doctors even expect to perform long-distance surgery using robotics. Full Article IHealthBeat reports FCC rule to extend funding April 11, 2008 FCC Rule Extends Funding to Some Rural Telehealth Efforts The Federal Communications Commission has extended until 2011 the eligibility for some rural health care provider organizations to receive subsidized funding for their telemedicine initiatives, Health Data Management reports. In March 2005, FCC changed its definition of "rural" health care facilities but temporarily provided subsidies for organizations that no longer qualified for them under the federal telecommunications universal service program. In response to a request by the American Telemedicine Association, FCC in a final rule published in the Federal Register on Thursday has agreed to extend by three years the grandfather period for organizations that no longer qualify for subsidies under the new definition. The FCC rule states, "In its petition, ATA identifies multiple health care facilities that participate in telehealth communication networks in Nebraska and Montana that would be adversely affected by the loss in universal service rural health care funding if the new definition of rural were applied to their rural health care funding applications." FCC said it needs more time to assess the effect of its new definition of rural organizations before any providers lose eligibility (Health Data Management, 4/10).