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. Click image for larger view.

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." 

Erikka Gilliam, an intern for the WIC program since December, will start another DPH internship this spring.

Gilliam, a student at Emory University's Rollins School of Public Health, joined DPH as an intern for the WIC program on Dec. 4. The work she did played a role in landing her a second internship at DPH which starts in May, this time with the EPIC Breastfeeding Program, part of DPH's Maternal and Child Health Section. Her experience illustrates the success of the department's growing intern program

Gilliam said DPH has taught her a lot about the practice of public health in the real world.

"I never thought I would learn so much in just a few months," she said.In the WIC program, Gilliam is the lead research assistant, supervising the program's other interns as they conduct telephone surveys of WIC participants, investigating why some clients aren't returning to WIC clinics to pick up food vouchers. Gilliam piloted the survey in December, implemented it in the spring and trained other interns to make the phone calls and record data. Now she's working on compiling a report on the project.

During the month of April, the Office of Child Health encourages all individuals and organizations to play a role in making Georgia a better place for young children and their families.  

The Georgia Department of Public Health's (DPH) Office of Child Health, along with Early Childhood Comprehensive Systems/Peach Partners has coordinated several activities for the month of April which are in line with the focus weeks of physical development (April 1-6); social-emotional development (April 7-13); cognitive development (April 14-20); and language and literacy development (April 21-30).

Developing early reading skills is crucial to children's success in school. During the month of April, the Office of Child Health is sponsoring a book drive. Donations of new or gently used books are requested and books can be donated by state office employees and family members. Donation bins are located in the elevator banks of 2 Peachtree.