California Telehealth Network Launches

On Aug. 17, the California Telehealth Network (CTN) was launched at a Sacramento press conference that included Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, Aneesh Chopra, the U.S. Chief Technology Officer, and a broad group of network funders and statewide health care organizations.

CTN, a $30 million joint funding effort among the Federal Communications Commission, the California Emerging Technology Fund, the California HealthCare Foundation,UnitedHealthcare, the National Coalition for Healthcare Integration, the University of California and other private and public entities, will be the nation’s largest telehealth network.  CTN will connect more than 800 California health care facilities to a statewide medical-grade network of healthcare and emergency services.

The press conference featured live video hookups with Specialty Care Safety Net Initiative (SCSNI) patients, providers and clinics.  This segment of the press conference was hosted by CTN Co-Director Thomas S. Nesbitt, M.D., M.P.H., Associate Vice Chancellor for Strategic Technologies and Alliances at the University of California Davis School Of Medicine; and CCHP Executive Director of Telehealth Services.

The SCSNI participants gave eloquent voice to the value of CTN, SCSNI, and telehealth services. Participants included:

• Darla Carias, an Oroville resident whose 4-year-old son, Anthony, has been diagnosed with attention deficit and hyperactivity disorders. Anthony has been treated by specialists at University of California medical centers at Davis and Irvine, a specialty network that would not have been available without SCSNI and telehealth;
• Maria Alicia Alino, M.D., Anthony’s pediatrician, who received consults in psychiatry and neurology through SCSNI at Oroville Hospital facilities, and discussed the value of virtual telehealth specialty networks;
• Gail Fernandez, M.D., a University of California Irvine pediatric psychiatrist, who examined Anthony for SCSNI;
• Shubhangi Chitnis, M.D., a UC Davis pediatric neurologist, who also examined Anthony for SCSNI;
• David N. Katz, M.D., Medical Director of CommuniCare Health Centers, a Sacramento-area non-profit community health care organization, who discussed an SCSNI neurology patient consult with UC Irvine, and spoke of the value of telehealth in medical education and expanding the skills of primary care providers;
• Ira T. Lott, M.D., Division Chief of Pediatric Subspecialty Faculty Neurology; Medical Director of Neurology at CHOC Children’s—Children’s Hospital of Orange County; Associate Dean of Clinical Neuroscience at UC Irvine; and Principal SCSNI Investigator for UC Irvine; who discussed the CommuniCare patient consult and articulated the value of CTN in providing secure, high-quality video connections.

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Contact information

Stephen Robitaille
Communications Manager
Office: 916.285.1867
Cell: 510.295.8345