By Alec Rosenberg
In 2007, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger asked the University of California to lead an initiative on behalf of the state to create a digital highway that would expand health care access to all corners of California.
On Tuesday (Aug. 17) the governor, federal officials, state partners and university leaders saw that vision become reality, launching the California Telehealth Network at an event at the UC Davis Cancer Center in Sacramento. The $30 million network, with funding from the Federal Communications Commission and several major California investors, will be the nation's largest such venture.
"We are celebrating the future of medicine," Schwarzenegger said.
The CTN will connect more than 800 facilities over the next three years, linking them to a statewide medical-grade broadband network of health care and emergency services using live video, audio and other technologies. This will assure secure, high-speed connections to specialists at UC and other academic medical centers, said Dr. Cathryn Nation, UC associate vice president for health sciences and services. The UC Office of the President, together with the UC Davis Health System, serves as the legally and financially responsible partner for the project.
"An integral part of UC Health involves a longstanding commitment to public service and activities that benefit all who reside within California," said Dr. John Stobo, UC senior vice president for health sciences and services. "The California Telehealth Network is an extraordinary example of such efforts and ... of what is possible when state and federal partners join together with leaders in technology, health care, higher education and business in efforts to improve the quality and access to health care."
Public, private collaboration
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The CTN provides important infrastructure and shows great collaboration between the public and private sectors, said U.S. Chief Technology Officer Aneesh Chopra. "This is as much top-down as it is bottom-up," he said.
That collaboration was on display in a four-way hookup of the first sites connected to the CTN: Oroville Hospital in Oroville, CommuniCare Health Center in West Sacramento, UC Davis and UC Irvine.
Oroville Hospital pediatrician Dr. Maria Alicia Alino explained that she didn't feel comfortable treating, by herself, a 4-year-old boy who suffered from hyperactivity and developmental complications. So she turned to telemedicine, using technology to connect with UC Irvine psychiatrist Dr. Gail Fernandez and UC Davis neurologist Dr. Shubhangi Chitnis. They helped get the boy the care he needed, and now he is doing better, his mother said.
"Telemedicine has afforded us a great opportunity to access specialists," Alino said.
Chitnis, who specializes in pediatric neurology, said many families can't travel to UC Davis for a visit. Through telemedicine, she has consulted with patients in Chico, Oroville, Redding and Shasta, and expects that to increase with the CTN. "It's going to be very, very helpful for the rural patients," she said.
The CTN also will help urban residents. Dr. Ira Lott, UC Irvine Healthcare director of telemedicine, discussed a neurology consultation he did last week for a patient at CommuniCare Health Center in West Sacramento. CommuniCare's Dr. David Katz said working with Lott helped improve his diagnostic skills. In addition, his clinic serves as a teaching site for UC Davis medical students. "It's a win-win situation," Katz said.
The FCC announced the $22.1 million CTN grant in 2007, one of 69 networks funded through its Rural Health Care Pilot Program.
"The CTN is one of the most significant projects supported by the commission," said Sharon Gillett, chief of the FCC's Wireline Competition Bureau. "We're so pleased to see the CTN coming online."
Serving the underserved
The network will help bring the best medical expertise to underserved communities in California such as American Indian health centers in San Diego and clinics in remote Imperial County, said Sunne Wright McPeak. She is president and CEO of the California Emerging Technology Fund, which is providing the CTN with $3.6 million in matching funds.
The CTN is working with AT&T to connect the network's first 50 sites over the next two months and will include rural and urban locations from across the state, said CTN Executive Director Eric Brown.
Telemedicine has come a long way in the past two decades. UC began its first telemedicine program in 1992, a fetal monitoring project connecting a rural hospital in Colusa County with UC Davis Medical Center specialists. Telemedicine has since expanded across the UC system to thousands of specialty consultations. Its growth is expected to continue with the CTN, funding from the 2006 voter-approved Proposition 1D and the new Specialty Care Safety Net Initiative, a collaborative effort between UC medical school specialty departments and safety net clinics in California administered by the Center for Connected Health Policy.
The safety net initiative will use the CTN to connect providers to allow for collaborations that can dramatically improve health care to low-income populations around the state, said Margaret Laws, director of the California HealthCare Foundation's Innovations for the Underserved program. "We really believe the CTN can be a model for the nation," Laws said.
Stacey Cole, the CTN's former assistant director of operations, is now a second-year medical student at the University of Utah. After laying the groundwork for Tuesday's launch, "I had to be here," she said. "Seeing it happen after the long hours is great. This network opens up a lot of doors."
Alec Rosenberg is the health communications coordinator in the UC Office of the President's Integrated Communications group. For more information, visit the UC Newsroom or follow us on Twitter.