CfTH awarded $15,561,181 to build out high speed network to over 500 health care facilities in New Mexico, Arizona and Southwest Indian Health Service Areas.
Dale Alverson, MD, Medical Director of CfTH is the Principal Investigator, Gilbert Ramirez Gonzales, UNM, CIO is the Co-Principal Investigator.
The funds will support the build out of a telehealth access grid, providing the platform for the sharing, distribution and coordination of telemedicine clinical services, educational and training programs for 500 health related facilities across the rural southwest. The network will also support UNM Clinical and Translational Science Center community-based research.
Non-Profit Health Service Providers May Be Eligible to Join the Rural Health Care Pilot Program Southwest TAG Build-Out
In addition to the grids’ support of day-to-day telemedicine transactions among participating agencies, it will also provide a system that can be quickly transitioned to support telehealth and other high priority traffic in the event of a natural or man-made disaster.
Unique features of SW TAG are the network design studies and modeling components. These will allow iterative improvement through ongoing simulation, testing, evaluation, development and utilization throughout the project. Security, improved reliability, quality of service, and appropriate redundancy that can support disaster recovery are incorporated as part of the modeling and design.
The consortium of stakeholders includes: NM Institute of Mining & Technology, NM Department of Health, NM Department of Information Technology, Southwest Indian Health Services including: Albuquerque, Navajo, Phoenix, and Tucson Areas; Arizona Telemedicine Program, Holy Cross Hospital, Presbyterian Medical Services, Sangre de Cristo Community Health Partnership, and NM Primary Care Associates, Lovelace Clinic Foundation as well as UNM ITS, HSC and CfTH.
