INDIANAPOLIS – Real-time health care delivery is one of Indiana’s longest-running dichotomies and one that is presently under siege by technology and health care professionals alike. In the past, Indiana represented an unusual paradox when it came to uniformly serving its more than 6.2 million residents in the health care arena.

Home to one of the top five research and teaching hospital/medical organizations in the nation (the Indiana University School of Medicine), the Hoosier state also previously had one of the biggest segments of medically underserved citizens, according to the Regenstrief Center for Healthcare Engineering at Purdue University.

That is rapidly changing, according to Indiana Rural Health Association (IRHA) executive director Don Kelso, which is good news for the roughly 13 percent of Indiana’s population in rural areas.

As reported in this column in 2007, Indiana massed its world-class medical and technology forces to go after a major piece of a $417 million Rural Health Care Pilot Program (RHCPP), which is administered by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).

The $16.2 million slice that the Indiana governor’s office and the IRHA successfully carved out has a unique ingredient: high-end commercial fiber-optics for rural communities.

Over the next three years, the Indiana Telehealth Network – comprised of best-in-class health care and telecom entities such as St. Vincent Health Systems, Clarian Health Partners, Union Hospital’s Richard G. Lugar Center for Rural Health, Bloomington Hospital and the Indiana Telecommunications Association – will ramp up telehealth operations and capacity to 35 rural Indiana hospitals.

“Indiana’s grant award is substantially different from other awards in one major area,” said John Koppin, executive director of the Indiana Telecommunications Association, in an interview with MidwestBusiness.com.

Instead of university-based hospitals receiving the sole broadband benefit for rural distribution, Koppin says the grant allows Indiana commercial companies to bring real broadband capacity in the form of high-end fiber optics to broader rural communities.

“This aspect of the award really pumps the overall value to rural Indiana,” said Cullen McCarty, president of Smithville Digital, who was part of the team that prepared the FCC submission.

The southern Indiana company represents one of Indiana’s leading broadband innovators as Smithville has already laid and lit up fiber-optic broadband between major hospitals and rural health care operations.

As the projects roll out across Hoosierland over the next 36 months, rural businesses, farms and residents will for the first time have access to high-speed and high-capacity fiber broadband. This is substantially different from the twisted-pair DSL capacity presently available in some rural Indiana areas.

Kelso says the health-related problems and needs of rural Hoosier areas to be addressed by the Indiana Telehealth Network include improved access to health care services and providers, improved access to patient information and improved access to health information, education and training. The outcome can be an overall improved health status (just in time for the 2010 census).

“The lightning speed of fiber-optics and point-to-point wireless transmission means that health providers in rural areas can consult with specialists, monitor patients in remote locations and transmit and receive very large files (such as MRI scans) all in a matter of minutes or seconds,” Kelso said.

In many areas of Indiana, patients presently have little or no access to medical specialists in critical fields such as radiology, cardiology and neurology. Kelso says rural Indiana patients must often “travel great distances – often in very fragile health – to obtain these services”.

While Indiana had been making progress through fiber-optics services set up by companies like Smithville, the FCC grant is expected to rapidly accelerate this adoption of technology.

Long-time rural advocates such as U.S. Sen. Richard Lugar are ecstatic about potential progress: “The Indiana Healthcare Network is an important strategy to advance health care delivery and utilize the strength of telecommunications technology,” he said in a prepared statement announcing the $16 million grant award.

Shawna Girgis – a retired IRHA executive director and now mayor of rural Bedford, Ind. – was the primary author of the Indiana FCC submission.

She attributes the success of the grant submission, which exceeded federal and local expectations, to “many factors including the co-applicant organizations that worked to develop the application, the initiative of Indiana Sen. David Ford and Indiana Rep. Peggy Welch to author and support the [Indiana] bill that leveraged the required matching funds as well as the guidance and support provided by Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels.”

So what might be the expected outcome of all of this? According to Purdue’s Regenstreif Center: “Telemedicine applications offer the promise of improved access to care and tremendous cost savings … and in some case [may] even save countless lives in Indiana.”

Michael Snyder is principal of The MEK Group, a marketing and business development consulting firm that provides communications-driven strategies to increase market share, enhance productivity and build distinctive brand awareness. Snyder can be reached at msnyder@themekgroup.com.
Click here for Snyder’s full biography.

Previous Columns in 2007:
Sen. Richard Lugar: ‘Energy, Ideas’ New Drivers to Avert Current Oil Crisis (1/10/2008)
Indiana’s Top 10 Best Technology Achievements, Worst Developmnets in 2007 (12/27/2007)
Vontoo, ExactTarget Bearing Holiday Gifts For Major Indiana Investor (12/20/2007)
Nathan Feltman: 2007 Indiana Growth Blazes on Record-Setting Pace (12/13/2007)
Indiana Rapidly Moving Toward Technology-Based Economy (12/6/2007)
Purdue’s New President: Growth Plans Reaching For the Stars (11/29/2007)
Entrepreneurs Swamp Indiana; Milestone Tech Summit on Deck (11/18/2007)
Second-Annual Entrepreneur Week Starts in Indiana on Nov. 5 (11/1/2007)
BioCrossroadsLINX to Bond Critical Indiana Biotech Assets (10/25/2007)
Burrill, BioCrossroads Conference: Indiana Life Sciences Expansion on Deck (10/19/2007)
Convergence Drives Runaway Success For Hoosier Biotech (10/11/2007)
‘Deals Are Getting Done, Market is Open’ in Indiana, CBRE Says (10/5/2007)
Nanotechnology ‘Backbone of Development’ Expands With Grant (9/27/2007)
Big Changes Under Way For $6 Billion Defense Industry in Indiana (9/13/2007)
Indiana is ‘Undisputed Juggernaut in Attracting Japanese Investment’ (9/7/2007)
High-End IT Professionals: Indiana’s Exploding Tech Industry Needs You (8/30/2007)
Indiana Biodiesel Plant a ‘Strategic Centerpiece’ For French Fuel Giant (8/23/2007)
China: Half a Billion in Indiana Exports and Growing Exponentially (8/16/2007)
Indiana University: New $2 Billion Partner For Economic Development (8/9/2007)
Message From ad:tech Chicago: Ignore Consumer Voice at Your Peril (8/2/2007)
Indiana Gov. Daniels: WestGate to Be ‘Flagship’ of Tech, Engineering (7/26/2007)
Taxpayer Revolt: A Constitutional Convention For Indiana? (7/19/2007)
$100 Million Formula One Rolls Out of Indianapolis, Won’t Return in 2008 (7/12/2007)
State of Indiana’s Defense Business: $4.6 Billion and Growing (7/5/2007)
Purdue Simulation of World Trade Center Impact Could Improve Design, Safety (6/21/2007)
Nobel Prize Winners, Scholars Primed For ‘Premier Conference’ in Indianapolis (6/14/2007)
2012: Repeat of 1859 Solar ‘Super Storm’ Catastrophe? (6/7/2007)
Indianapolis 500: 220 Miles Per Hour on 100 Percent Fuel-Grade Ethanol (5/31/2007)
‘Baby Steps’ For Marcadia Biotech in Indiana Grow Into ‘Giant Leaps’ (5/22/2007)
Indiana Legislature Scores Big With Innovative Patent Tax Credit (5/10/2007)
IEDC to Showcase Hoosier ‘Best, Brightest’ at BIO 2007 in Boston (5/3/2007)
‘Little 500’ Bike Race Sports 21st Century Indiana University RFID (4/26/2007)
Manufacturing Critical For Global Success, Indiana Expert Says (4/19/2007)
First-Ever Indiana Robotic Proton System Nukes Deep Tumors (4/12/2007)
Purdue’s Discovery Park a $350 Million ‘Driver For Change’ (4/5/2007)
Cellulosic Fuels, Ag Tech to Play Key Role in Indiana’s Future (3/30/2007)
With FCC Deadline Looming, Indiana Ponders Telemedicine (3/22/2007)
Realigned TechPoint Set to Energize Indiana IT Growth (3/15/2007)
Indiana General Assembly on Tech: Chaos or Collaboration? (3/9/2007)
Indiana DSI Initiative Sets New Vision of Innovative, Large-Scale Tech Transfer (3/1/2007)
No ‘Corn Dot-Com Bust’ For Indiana Ethanol, Says Ag Secretary Miller (2/15/2007)
Battelle Report: Indiana Biosciences Again Established as National Player (2/8/2007)
Indiana Defense Muscle Grows With West Gate Tech Park Expansion (2/1/2007)
Twenty in 10: President Bush Leaps Future of Hoosier Biofuels Forward (1/25/2007)
Outlook on Indiana-Based Biofuels, World Markets: ‘We’re Ready’ (1/18/2007)
ChaCha in Indiana Attracts Funding From Amazon, Compaq Founders (1/11/2007)
Purdue Ethanol Tech May Render Current Fuel Production ‘Obsolete’ (1/5/2007)
Click for 2006 column archive.
Click for 2005 column archive.

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