FCC gives $15.5 million grant for rural telehealth broadband network

ALBURQUERQUE, N.M. The Federal Communications Commission has given a $15.5 million grant to the Center for TeleHealth and Cybermedicine Research at the Health Sciences Center, according to published reports. The grant will be used to design, build, operate and evaluate a Southwest Telhealth Access Grid, a broadband network that will be mostly serving rural areas that lack such technology.

The grid of telehealth networks will support rural systems and connections to more than 500 sites, primarily in New Mexico and Arizona, along with several Indian Health Service sites in Colorado, California, Nevada, Texas and Utah.

"I believe, in the end, telehealth will be part of doing business in the health field, just like we use the telephone," said Alverson, medical director of the Center for Telehealth at the University of New Mexico's Health Sciences Center. "It won't be looked at as something unique or special; it's just what we do. ... Just as for many of us now it's second nature to use the Internet and the Web for health information."

"The idea with the FCC is not only to support our region, but eventually to connect these regions for a national telehealth network," Alverson said. The Southwest initiative was one of 69 nationwide the FCC funded.