One of the things that has jumped out at us while we travel through the Southeast is the amount of rural space there seems to be. Even within cities (Jacksonville, one of the largest geographic cities in the nation, for example) we seemed to jump from one isolated area to another. It’s beautiful and quaint; however, once you get out of bigger cities and into the country it can present its own breed of problems.
One of the significant issues facing the nation, health care, can be even more troublesome in rural areas; enter the Georgia Partnership for Telehealth. As taken from their web site, their focus is “on increasing access to healthcare through the innovative use of technology including telemedicine, health information exchange and telehealth.”
The program has had tremendous success, as indicated by its growth serving over 240,000 people in 2014… this from a humble beginning of eight (8!) only as far back as 2006. The value of the program is also indisputable, “Providing access to healthcare via telemedicine has proven to cut costs on travel, work time and provides earlier access to care therefore preventing the large costs of untreated healthcare problems.”
In a region where rural citizens make up a critical mass of the population, the Georgia Partnership for Telehealth is making a critical difference, learn more at their website.