Mississippi Governor, FCC Official Laud Telehealth Initiative

Mississippi Governor Phil Bryant and Federal Communication Commission (FCC) Chairwoman Mignon Clyburn recently stopped by North Sunflower Medical Center to pay tribute to the University of Mississippi Medical Center's (UMMC) led telehealth-based diabetes care management program. 

Bryant, who has supported the program since its inception, and Clyburn both lauded UMMC, North Sunflower, the GE-Intel vendor outfit CareInnovations, and other stakeholders for their work on the project. The project, featured recently in HCI, launched in 2014. It connects through telehealth and a care management application, UMMC specialists with diabetes patients at the rural-based North Sunflower Medical Center. Patients in the program are monitored remotely through a tablet app and also have telehealth encounters at the rural hospital.

While the Diabetes Telehealth Network project only launched a few months ago, it has already started to see results. Mississippi has one of the highest rates of diabetics per population in the country. Already, the program has curbed Hemoglobin A1C levels among participants.

"Connecting people to the health and care services they need is the true promise of broadband,” stated Clyburn. “I applaud the State of Mississippi and its private partners for making this project a priority. The Diabetes Telehealth Network is a terrific example of the value of the ubiquitous deployment of advanced technologies in rural and underserved areas.”

Governor Bryant said in a statement: “This innovative partnership has gained the attention of the Federal Communications Commission as we are connecting patients in the rural town of Ruleville to a care management program they otherwise would not have access to in their town. I thank our partners for working diligently to make the Diabetes Telehealth Network an early success.”