It’s exciting to see another announcement for a telemedicine link to the University of Virginia. On Tuesday, the Meadowview Health Clinic and Community Center announced it will be the latest of more than 50 Southwest Virginia health-care providers to offer the link to the nationally-recognized center in Charlottesville.
The link lets patients have video conferences with medical specialists by visiting the clinic in Meadowview. It eliminates the need for trips out of the area to confer with specialists and lets local citizens get the medical treatment they need at home by conferring with their local doctors.
“There was a time in the not-too-distant past when the people of this region who needed a level of specialty care that was beyond the ability of local physicians … they would’ve had to take a very long and expensive trip,” U.S. Rep. Rick Boucher, D-9th, told the Herald Courier Tuesday, while announcing a $227,613 federal grant for the project. “Now … with the telemedicine links … around our region, it is no longer necessary for them to make the trip.”
Boucher called the network “a new era” for medical care in the region – and said the local connection should be up and running by the end of the year.
The grants announced Tuesday will include funding for a digital mammography van to bring health screenings to women in mountain communities.
Howard Chapman, executive director of the Southwest Virginia Community Health Systems, which runs this and five other clinics in the region, said the telemedicine link also can be used for health education.
For more than a decade, Boucher has diligently worked to get federal funds for these sites across the 9th District. The latest telemedicine link at Meadowview is one more welcome tool to improve wellness and increase health information in the region.
Email
Facebook
Google
Twitter
Favorites
More
Advertisement