Southwest Virginia Alliance for Telemedicine
Founded in 1997, the Southwest Virginia Alliance for Telemedicine was formed to provide telemedicine and telehealth services to four sites in southwest Virginia. The Southwest Virginia Alliance for Telemedicine project will operate over the state ATM network, Network Virginia. Each remote site in southwest Virginia will have an ATM T1 connection to the network for telemedicine and telehealth use.
The partners for the Southwest Virginia Alliance for Telemedicine are:
- University of Virginia Office of Telemedicine, Charlottesville, VA
- Thompson Family Health Center, Vansant, VA
- Lee County Community Hospital, Pennington Gap, VA
- Stone Mountain Health Clinic, Castlewood, VA
- Norton Community Hospital, Norton, VA
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Dr. Kant Lin examines a patient at the Thompson Family Health Center in Vansant using telemedicine. |
In addition to the contributions made by each of the partners, the Southwest Virginia Alliance for Telemedicine is being funded in part by a Telecommunications and Information Infrastructure Assistance Program grant from the United States Department of Commerce. Additional funding is being provided by a grant from the Virginia Health Care Foundation. Further contributors to the project include Buchanan County, Bell Atlantic ($20,000), Sprint ($15,000 over 3 years), and .
By providing specialty clinical and consultative services via telemedicine, this project will improve medical care in rural areas of southwest Virginia. Patients who are unable to travel to distant sites for specialty care will benefit greatly from the Southwest Virginia Alliance for Telemedicine.