USDA funds rural telemedicine initiative at ETSU
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has announced that East Tennessee State University (ETSU) has received a $121,069 grant to establish a telemedicine system linking five clinics in Hancock, Johnson and Washington Counties.
It is one of three projects funded in Tennessee as part of 86 projects announced in the USDA’s “Distance Learning and Telemedicine” grant program. In all, $42.3 million was distributed as part of the national initiative to help rural education and health care entities remotely reach students, patients and outside expertise.
The ETSU funding will provide access to behavioral and substance misuse telehealth counseling. It will also provide primary care and specialty care telemedicine support for patients who are unable to travel to one of seven nurse-managed clinics in the three counties.
