The American Telemedicine Association has awarded UC Davis Health System's Center for Health and Technology with its President's Award for leadership and innovation in using telecommunication technology to improve the delivery of health care, and for enabling patients throughout California to receive direct clinical and specialty care without leaving their own communities.

Thomas Nesbitt, executive associative dean for Administration and Clinical Outreach, founded UC Davis' telemedicine program in 1992 with a tele-fetal monitoring link between Colusa Community Hospital and UC Davis Medical Center. Since then, it has since grown to include a variety of innovative telemedicine applications, including video-based consultations, store-andforward services, emergency room and intensive care unit consultation, teleradiology, video interpreting, quality assurance for sexual assault exams and telehome health.

Today, the center provides more than 80 clinic and hospital sites with access to over 30 medical specialties and subspecialties and has completed over 13,000 videobased clinical consultations. In addition to clinical services, the center has provided an intensive three-day telemedicine training program to more than 800 health-care professionals, including physicians, clinic coordinators, business executives and technicians.