Senator Wicker and FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr announce the ‘Connected Care Pilot Program’ in 2018. Photo by News Mississippi.
A telehealth program at the University of Mississippi Medical Center (UMMC) will benefit from a new round of funding from the Federal Communications Commission.
With an award of $2.37 million, UMMC’s telehealth program is one of 14 projects to be selected for the ‘Connected Care Pilot Program’ which was announced in 2018 by FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr right here in Mississippi.
According to Senator Roger Wicker, who accompanied Carr for the announcement at the time, the project will provide support for telehealth services for low-income Mississippians who live in rural areas or are veterans.
“The University of Mississippi Medical Center has been on the leading edge of providing telehealth services to rural areas,” Wicker said. “This award from the FCC’s Connected Care Pilot Program will be a major boost to our state’s efforts to provide quality care to residents who lack easy access to in-person care. I appreciate the work of FCC Commissioner Carr to help make this program a reality.”
Carr reiterated that UMMC’s efforts in the telehealth space were a springboard for the $100 million investment made by the FCC into the ‘Connected Care’ program.
“Senator Wicker’s leadership is accelerating the delivery of telehealth services in Mississippi, and across the country. The idea for this program sprang from events that Senator Wicker held in Mississippi at UMMC. I’m pleased that the health care heroes at UMMC will benefit from this initiative,” Carr said.
UMMC’s project will provide broadband access to patients, enabling remote patient monitoring technologies and ambulatory telehealth visits to low-income patients suffering from chronic conditions or illnesses requiring long-term care. The health system estimates that the project will impact up to 237,120 patients across Mississippi and serve up to 6,000 patients directly. Of these patients, UMMC estimates 52 percent would be low-income.
