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Background
The Office for the Advancement of Telehealth (OAT) promotes the use of telehealth technologies for health care delivery, education, and health information services. Telehealth is defined as the use of telecommunications and information technologies to share information, and to provide clinical care, education, public health, and administrative services at a distance. The office is part of the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. HRSA's mission is to assure quality health care for underserved, vulnerable, and special needs populations.

Grants Overview
In 2003, OAT administered 110 telehealth/telemedicine projects. Of those, 54 were awarded funds totaling over $27.7 million, and 56 were projects in an extension period. Projects administered by OAT receive funds in one of four ways:

1. The Telehealth Network Grant Program (TNGP): OAT now awards competive grants through the TNGP. This program replaces the Rural Telemedicine Grant Program (RTGP). The TNGP funds projects that demonstrate the use of telehealth networks to improve healthcare services for medically underserved populations in urban, rural, and frontier communities. More specifically, the networks can be used to: (a) expand access to, coordinate, and improve the quality of health care services; (b) improve and expand the training of health care providers; and/or (c) expand and improve the quality of health information available to health care providers, patients, and their families. The primary objective of the Telehealth Network Grant Program (TNGP) is to help communities build the human, technical, and financial capacity to develop sustainable telehealth programs and networks. In FY 2003, 15 projects were funded through the TNGP as part of a three-year award.
   
2. Rural Telemedicine Grant Program (RTGP): This program was replaced by the Telehealth Network Grant Program. OAT awarded competitive grants through 2002. The goal of the RTGP was to improve quality health services for rural residents and reduce the isolation of rural practitioners through the use of telemedicine technologies. In FY 03, OAT administered 19 projects that were funded in FY02 and 2 additional projects in extension periods.
   
3. Congressionally Mandated Projects (CMP): OAT also administers funds specially earmarked by Congress. The goals of these projects vary widely, but all include the use of telehealth technologies to improve access to health care. In FY 2003, OAT funded 39 CMP projects and administered 35 additional projects in extension periods.
   
4. Special Projects: These projects were funded through OAT grantees to: 1) promote activities in program evaluation; 2) to document the diffusion of telehealth technologies among the Health Resources and Services Administration's (HRSAs) grantees http://www.telemed.med.ecu.edu/hrsa/); 3) to evaluate specific policy issues; and 4) to develop concepts for telehealth resource centers. The projects include a focus on collaboration and using telehealth as a method of overcoming health care or educational access issues.

• Current Projects by State/Projects by Type Grant
• Chart of Major Clinical Services
• Chart of Sources of Reimbursement
• Program Settings
• Areas of Interest
• Homeland Security
• Components of the Project

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