What may be the nation’s first endowed chair in telehealth has been created at Akron Children’s Hospital, which between March and April has seen an 88 percent increase in the number of completed telehealth visits.
The endowed chair was made possible through a $1 million gift from philanthropist Marci M. Matthews.
The Marci M. Matthews Endowed Chair in Telehealth will give Akron Children’s Hospital the ability to access a broad range of technologies and services to improve access to patient care as well as the ability to expand health care training.
The chair will be held by Sarah Rush, M.D., chief medical information officer and director of neuro-oncology and a pediatric oncologist at Akron Children’s.
Rush oversees Akron Children’s clinical information systems and assists clinicians in the delivery of patient care. She also works with the hospital’s medical staff, administration and information technology department on Akron Children’s electronic medical records system. She came to the hospital in 2013 as a pediatric oncologist and has been an active member of the hospital’s physician informatics group since 2016.
“We believe this to be the first telehealth endowed chair in the nation and we are so grateful to Marci for this generous gift,” said Akron Children’s Hospital President and CEO Grace Wakulchik, in a statement. “Our medical landscape is changing rapidly and the creation of the Marci M. Matthews Endowed Chair in Telehealth will ensure Akron Children’s remains at the forefront of this innovative way to treat our patients and expand access to learning and training.”
“The recent events in our world reinforced to me the need to support efforts to give patients and their families access to medical treatment without barriers,” Matthews said in a statement. “I really appreciated how Akron Children’s Hospital responded quickly to expand telehealth services to its patients and families. This rapid transformation of care delivery led me to support advancements of telehealth at Akron Children’s Hospital by establishing this endowed chair.”
