The University of Virginia Gets Grant from Verizon for Telehealth Expansion

Verizon has given a grant to The University of Virginia's College at Wise to expand the use of telehealth services in Southwestern Virginia by implementing one of Virginia’s first telenursing curricula. A $20,000 grant from the Verizon Foundation is funding the development of one of Virginia's first telehealth nursing curricula at the Department of Nursing at UVa-Wise. The project is a partnership among UVa-Wise, the Healthy Appalachia Institute and the University of Virginia Office of Telemedicine. Telehealth is emerging as a critical resource, enabling care to be provided to patients in rural locations such as Southwest Virginia by increasing access to specialty consultations, providing home monitoring, and helping to alleviate significant workforce shortages in primary and specialty health care fields. The project's goal, preparing nurses with the knowledge and skills required to maximize the use of emerging and evolving telehealth technologies to improve health care access and services, is being implemented in the college's nursing curriculum this fall. The project also includes a regional telehealth symposium for practicing health care professionals, which will address crucial topics such as the ways in which telemedicine fits into patient and community health care to emerging uses of telehealth.