Imagine a world where no matter who you are or where you are, you can get the health care you need when you need it.

Can you picture this?

	A world where people living in far-flung areas need not travel hundreds of miles to get specialty care that could save their lives?
A world where you will be treated in an emergency room by a nurse at your side and a physician at a distant emergency department?
	A world where doctors and nurses in rural America can learn about new medical practices at the touch of a computer key?

These pictures are real because
the future is now.

Technologies used in telehealth – videoconferencing, the Internet, store-and-forward imaging, streaming media, satellite and wireless communications – already exist, but are not yet part of the regular landscape for our nation’s rural and urban underserved peoples.  In fact, the health care industry itself lags behind other industries such as finance, insurance and education which have already integrated information systems into their daily routines.  Health care analysts believe that health care is at least ten to fifteen years behind in computing.

What can we do?

HRSA has established the Office for the Advancement of Telehealth (OAT) to serve as a leader in telehealth, a focal point for HRSA’s telehealth activities and as a catalyst for the wider adoption of advanced technologies in the provision of health care services and education.

So what is Telehealth?

Telehealth is the use of electronic information and telecommunications technologies to support long-distance clinical health care, patient and professional health-related education, public health and health administration.

We hope our Web site will help you coordinate your telehealth activities, learn about telehealth “best practices,” deliver information you need and provide a forum for discussion among various telehealth players.

We encourage you to make this site useful.  Please send suggestions, comments and upcoming events to LProcopio@hrsa.gov.

Dena Puskin, Sc.D., Director