In the late 1990s, under the legislative auspices of former Sen. Ted Stevens, an Alaska consortium of federal entities embarked on a program of telemedicine. Directed by Linda Lekness and technical leadership of Stewart Ferguson, an initial $36 million grant primarily managed through Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium and Alaska Federal Health Care Partnership was used to develop, deploy, and train 235 Alaska communities in the burgeoning technology.
The program developed “telemedicine carts” which included diagnostic tools, reporting mechanisms, and video conferencing for the delivery of medical information back to medical personnel at the Alaska Native Medical Center in Anchorage. The program was delivered on time and within budget, the consequence of which has been the inclusion of additional Alaska communities and the continued successful use of telemedicine instruments by rural health care providers to deliver quality care.
“Telemedicine” in today’s lexicon means an assortment of communication devises to remotely deliver health care. Given that the technology was discussed as early as the early 1970s, the foresight of Sen. Stevens and the direction by Ms. Lekness, AFHCAN staff and its board have brought the technology further into fruition.
Barry Reiss
Homer
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