May 25, 2006

(SACRAMENTO, Calif.) — The UC Davis Center for Health and Technology received the President's Award for the Advancement of Telemedicine from the American Telemedicine Association at its 11th annual international meeting in San Diego in May.

The award recognizes the center's overall leadership and innovation in using the latest in telecommunications technology to improve the delivery of health care. It also recognizes the breadth, depth and effectiveness of UC Davis's telemedicine, telehealth and e-health programs, which enable patients from throughout California to receive direct clinical and specialty care without leaving their own communities.

UC Davis provides 80 clinic and hospital sites in California with access to over 30 medical specialties and subspecialties and has completed over 13,000 video-based clinical consultations since the program began in 1992. Through the Telemedicine Learning Center, UC Davis also teaches physicians, clinic coordinators, business executives and technicians how to establish effective telemedicine programs to meet the unique needs of patients in other communities nationwide. Since 1999, the learning center has trained more than 800 health-care professionals.

Jonathan D. Linkous, executive director of the American Telemedicine Association, said, “The UC Davis Center for Health and Technology was chosen because of its success in providing a wide array of clinical services to patients throughout California. Staff members from the center have published numerous articles and made countless presentations about their approach to the remote delivery of care. In addition, the Telemedicine Learning Center serves as an educational resource to staff at other telemedicine sites. The Center for Health and Technology is an excellent example of how telemedicine programs can be structured in order to provide access to quality and cost-effective health care.”

“We are very proud to receive this prestigious award that recognizes the broad spectrum of telehealth initiatives that we have implemented,” said Thomas Nesbitt, Executive Associate Dean for Administration and Clinical Outreach. “Our goal is to reduce health disparities by bringing the clinical care expertise and educational resources of the University of California directly to communities throughout the state.

Nesbitt founded the UC Davis Telemedicine Program to provide direct clinical care to patients at a distance. The program began with a tele-fetal monitoring link between Colusa Community Hospital and UC Davis Medical Center in 1992. Since then, it has grown to include a variety of innovative telemedicine applications, including video-based consultations, store-and-forward services, emergency room and intensive care unit consultation, teleradiology, video interpreting, quality assurance for sexual assault exams, telehome health. In addition, a portable satellite terminal unit that can be transported to sites, including disaster locations without land lines, is a powerful tool that enables UC Davis to provide expert consultation to individuals in remote areas.

In 2000, UC Davis established the Center for Health and Technology to consolidate its telehealth projects, which include telemedicine, distance education and applied medical informatics. The CHT collaborates with a range of professionals to develop and evaluate information and telecommunications technologies that improve access to high-quality patient care, information resources, and health and medical education opportunities. Specialists include physicians, educators, information-technology and communications experts, engineers and researchers.