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 Welcome to the home of the
Rural Telemedicine Cooperative, Inc. |
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The Rural Telemedicine Cooperative, Inc. is an
IRS 501(3)C non-profit healthcare technology organization that
is going to make
medical information and services available to almost anyone in need. Electronic Healthcare Records (EHRs), Personal Health Records (PHRs) and "Telemedicine" are all terms that are widely used to describe the application of technologies that allow a doctor, a patient and the information they need to exchange to be located remotely and accessed on demand. RTC is working in the following areas: ViPER Transfer Network - With more than 40 software companies developing EHRs, 6,000 US hospitals and over 80% of the 950,000 private practice US physicians still using paper records, there is a need for a service to allow them to exchange paper and/or electronic health records (EHRs) securely, efficiently and cost effectively regardless of their software platform or lack thereof. RTC is developing the ViPER Transfer network. This 3rd party transfer network will allow such secure exchanges. RTC's ViPER (virtual, private electronic record) Transfer Network will significantly reduce medical errors, service duplications, IT costs and HIPAA liability for all participating healthcare providers. It will also allow for comfortable blend of open-source data exchanges between disparate and often proprietary record keeping systems. Personal Health Record - We are developing the first secure, fully customizable personal health record (PHR) database that is managed entirely by the patient and is available on-demand to patient-selected healthcare providers. Our system will allow the patient to enter the health data they choose, yet still interface with evolving regional health information networks (RHIOs) and insurance company PHRs on a fully HIPAA compliant basis. The PHR will interface with the ViPER transfer network. Telemedicine Initiative - Within the USA, Telemedicine (sometimes called "Telehealth") is already widely used in radiology and in numerous other specialty fields on a doctor-to-doctor and/or institutional basis. To name just a few, the states of Alaska and Hawaii have fully functioning and successful telemedicine programs to allow doctors to visit patients in remote towns and islands. The state of Texas has a successful Telemedicine program for its correctional system - allowing one central doctor to visit any inmate in any prison within the system. In most cases, the cost savings are substantial. With consider knowledge of HIT and evolving telemedicine technologies, RTC offers its telemedicine IP and telemedicine consulting services to its constituents on a non-profit basis. Our technology and our blueprint for the developing the medical model will be freely shared with the non-profit community. In order to assist with our mission, a significant fund raising and grant writing effort is being undertaken. These grants will usually be applied to a specific location with an existing rural healthcare problem and may be applied for in conjunction with other organizations. We welcome the support of the academic community, healthcare providers, medical doctors, nurses and legal professionals as we build a network to share information and technology. We also welcome grant writers, government agencies and philanthropists who can assist with the procurement of development funding. We will soon have a mailing list and a "services" section where available services will be shared. Please feel free to contact us here: Rural Telemedicine Cooperative, Inc. PO Box 948 Lexington, SC 29071 Tel: 803-356-0032 Fax: 803-753-0174 email: Support@TeleMD.org |
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