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Telemedicine Training Program |
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Arizona Telemedicine Training
Program Accredited by American Telemedicine Association
Telemedicine
The UA’s pioneering program in telemedicine training is one of
only two in the United States to be accredited by the American
Telemedicine Association.
By Jean Spinelli, AHSC Office of Public Affairs
June 16, 2009
The Arizona Telemedicine Program's Training Program, a leader in
telemedicine and telehealth training is one of the first
training programs in the United States to be accredited by the
American Telemedicine Association, known as ATA. |
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The association, the
largest telemedicine organization in the world, established its
first-of-a-kind certification program earlier this year.
The Arizona Telemedicine Program, at The University of Arizona
and the University of California-Davis Telehealth Program are
the first two programs ever to complete the certification
process and were recognized during the ATA's annual meeting.
Telemedicine allows the diagnosis and treatment of patients
using medical information and images transmitted electronically
over long distances.
The ATP Training Program provides information, instruction and
ongoing training in all aspects of running a telemedicine
program, including clinical applications, telecommunications
infrastructure development and operations, distance education,
evaluation and business and administration.
"Interest in telemedicine is mushrooming worldwide and Arizona
is a leader in the field. Accreditation by the ATA is important
recognition of the high quality of the ATP's training programs.
Their recognition and co-branding of our training programs will
help us market our training programs throughout the United
States and internationally," said Dr. Ronald S. Weinstein, ATP
founding director.
The association established its accreditation program to ensure
that telemedicine, telehealth and e-health training programs
in the United States and other countries meet high standards
of quality in terms of content, methods and resources, and also
to provide formal recognition of training programs that meet
such standards.
"The Arizona Telemedicine Program's Training Program helps to
improve health care in Arizona's rural and urban communities by
preparing health care professionals to establish and operate
telemedicine programs. Its training programs also bring
healthcare workers up-to-date on the latest advances in
telehealth and e-health, including the uses of electronic
medical records for telemedicine applications," Weinstein said.
Currently, the ATP offers monthly one- and two-day training
courses in both Tucson and Phoenix. Trainers for the courses are
located in either of the ATP's videoconferencing facilities at
the UA's Arizona Health Sciences Center in Tucson or at the
ATP's Institute for Advanced Telemedicine and Telehealth at the
UA College of Medicine Phoenix in partnership with ASU.
The two campuses are linked by videoconferencing so that
training sessions can be given simultaneously on both campuses.
To date, 650 health care workers from more than 60 independent
health care organizations have attended these training programs.
"We anticipate that as we expand our ATP training for
physicians, nurses, pharmacists and other health care workers
into additional areas such as electronic health records, our
training programs will grow dramatically over the next decade.
Arizona is well-positioned to be a leader in the education of
physicians about electronic health records and their
implementation in doctors' offices," he added.
The ATP has received seven national awards for innovations in
distance education and training including Computerworld's 2008
top award for innovation in the education and academia category.
In recent years, word-of-mouth advertising has been attracting
more trainees from other states, as well as a growing number of
international participants. "The ATP brand has a high profile in
the telemedicine world," said Weinstein. "We will begin to
market our training programs nationally and internationally this
year. We also plan to add educational programs on electronic
health records in the near future."
"ATP is in the process of producing its training programs in
Spanish and also plans to produce them in other languages,
including Navajo," said Weinstein. "The training sessions are
being digitally recorded so that telemedicine training can be
offered over the Internet."
Weinstein presented a beta version DVD of telemedicine training
sessions recorded in Spanish at the ATA annual meeting. This was
received enthusiastically by Spanish-speaking physicians
attending the meeting. |
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