Through the WIC Visual Collaboration Project, DPH will establish 224 telehealth sites at DPH facilities across the state. The blue dots are endpoint locations and the green shading shows completed sites. ____________________________________________________

Georgia's telehealth program is taking shape around the state, moving the Georgia Department of Public Health (DPH) closer to its goal of improving health care access to all Georgians.

During the April meeting of the Board of Public Health, Suleima Salgado, MBA, DPH's new director of telehealth, briefed board members on the progress DPH has made in readying public health facilities across the state to launch a telemedicine network that can bring specialized care to underserved areas of Georgia, saving time and money for patients, providers and public health staff.

Most counties in the state have the telecommunications connections to provide telehealth services, such as nutritional counseling, to clients in remote areas using two-way, real-time technology. Now, DPH is working to give this network the capacity to deliver telemedicine, medical services such as dental care or monitoring of high-risk pregnancies.

"This has been a work in progress. Everyone has been talking about it and it has been one of the commissioner's top priorities," Salgado said. "We're finally at a point where we're ready to deploy this network."

The network could increase access to health care for many Georgians, particularly those in rural areas of the state where specialized medical care is often sparse. According to the Georgia Board for Physician Workforce, 52 percent of Georgia's physicians are located in five areas that serve just 38 percent of the state's population. The state also ranks 40th in the nation when it comes to adequate distribution of doctors by specialty and geographic location.

DPH is addressing these needs, beginning by determining the areas of the state that could benefit the most from telemedicine. With a $25,000 grant from the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO), DPH is working with health directors from the state's 18 health districts to determine the needs of each of Georgia's 159 counties, looking for the health care gaps telemedicine can fill.

Once those needs are determined, DPH will deploy 13 clinical carts, each outfitted with a stethoscope, optoscope and a high-resolution exam camera, and will train public health staff to operate the equipment. Departments can then begin using the telemedicine equipment to connect patients with health care providers anywhere in the state, eliminating the cost and time of travel for patients and doctors. DPH's connections with partners like the Georgia Partnership for Telehealth and the Georgia Volunteer Health Care Program will increase access to a rich variety of providers from dozens of medical specialties for many Georgians.

Salgado said the goal is to have the telemedicine carts in place by the fall of 2013.