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About CTEC eHealth Inventory |
History and Overview
The California Telemedicine & eHealth Center (CTEC) was created in 1997. Initial support for CTEC came from The James Irvine Foundation and The Sierra Health Foundation. Since 1999, The California Endowment has provided funding to CTEC. In 2005, CTEC received additional funding from the California HealthCare Foundation and the Blue Shield of California Foundation. CTEC is affiliated with the California Health Foundation and Trust and housed within the California Hospital Association. During its first five years of existence, CTEC progressively facilitated the growth of Telemedicine and eHealth in California by working collaboratively with hospitals, clinics, county and state agencies, federal and state legislative policy makers, community-based organizations, and other non-profit entities throughout the state.
Since its inception, CTEC has benefited from a comprehensive, utilization-focused independent evaluation of both its overall program and individual grantees. This review process has provided valuable findings regarding key lessons learned, as well as documentation of project-related outcomes and recommendations for best practices. Collectively, these form the basis for CTEC's vision of strengthening Telemedicine and eHealth applications in California.
Telemedicine and eHealth in California
Telemedicine and eHealth are the established trends of health care and consumer health education delivery in California, especially for its rural populations. In the state's remote regions, Telemedicine and eHealth are fast becoming essential and invaluable tools for preserving and strengthening health care systems, and for surmounting the unique barrier of access to quality medical services faced by rural-based health care consumers.
Over the past several years, California has become known as a Telemedicine and eHealth leader. California was one of the first states to allow Medicaid reimbursement for Telemedicine and eHealth services. Major medical centers are now using Telemedicine and eHealth technologies in a variety of ways to benefit its residents.
CTEC has made significant contributions toward increasing the technological expertise of California health care organizations through capacity building, training, education, and re-granting. In particular, CTEC has emerged as the primary source for hospitals and clinics in promoting the use of Telemedicine and eHealth within underserved communities.
CTEC I In March 1999, CTEC received a $5,000,000 grant from The California Endowment to increase the availability and quality of Telemedicine and eHealth statewide. As a first major step in public promotion of telemedicine-based approached to health, CTEC established its mini-grant program. By October 1999, a total of 34 mini-grants were funded, representing a remarkable variety of organizations, topical areas and geographies. In 1999, CTEC established the Telemedicine Learning Center (TLC), in partnership with the University of California, Davis Medical Center (UCDMC). Its goal is to provide professional training in Telemedicine protocol, implementation, and technique. The TLC has developed an internationally acclaimed, hands-on, classroom-based Telemedicine and eHealth training curriculum, and has trained over 800 community-based health providers and administrators to-date. As one of the largest hub and spoke sites in the nation, TLC's Telemedicine training curriculum covers over 30 specialties offered at over 70 regional sites throughout Northern California.
In early 2000, CTEC initiated its major grant program – “Telemedicine and eHealth Project and Network Grants.” Thirty-nine project and network grants were funded by CTEC. In spring 2003, CTEC awarded an additional $860,000 in re-granting funds to support the development of demonstration projects and to provide telemedicine equipment upgrades and modifications.
Teleophthalmology Grant Program
In 2000, The California Endowment awarded $1,856,600 to CTEC to develop a Teleophthalmology Grant Program for Indian health clinics with the goal of preventing blindness and vision impairment associated with diabetic retinopathy prevalent among Native American populations in California. Through the American Indian Diabetic Teleophthalmology Grant Program (AIDTGP), CTEC was able to introduce the concept of Telemedicine into this community to improve access to critically needed healthcare services for diabetics. The investment of grant funding into the American Indian community directly resulted in an increase in screenings that prevented the incidence of diabetes-related blindness and vision impairment, as well as health-related cost savings.
CTEC II
In spring 2003, CTEC received a five-year $9,000,000 grant from The California Endowment to address the delivery of healthcare services to rural and underserved communities though the development, expansion, and support of Telemedicine and eHealth Regional Rural eHealth Networks, and the provision of training and technical support for rural providers. More recently, CTEC received additional funding from the California HealthCare Foundation in the amount of $630,000 and from the Blue Shield of California Foundation in the amount of $1,020,530 as matching funds for this grant. These funds will primarily be used to build upon and intensify the existing effort to solidify Telemedicine and eHealth as a sustainable and mainstream mode of health delivery to rural populations across the state.
CTEC has focused its strategic efforts for the next five years on building Telemedicine & eHealth capacity and competency among providers, increasing access to specialty care, decreasing the digital divide as it relates to healthcare services, and improving access to quality care for California's rural and underserved populations.
Reducing Health Disparities through Strategic Applications of eHealth Technologies
CTEC’s current focus is to address the continuing crisis in rural health services delivery through the development, expansion, and support of Regional Rural eHealth Networks, thereby linking providers and clients to extensive and easily accessed health resources.
With the multi-year funding, CTEC’s focus is to:
Funding Timeline
2005
Funding Sources:
Purpose:
May 2005 – CTEC was awarded $630,000 as a re-granting effort for a Regional Rural eHealth Network to be developed in Central California.
September 2005 – CTEC was awarded a $1M, two-year grant, which will provide funds to support CTEC’s Resource Center. The grant also targets a project to develop a strategy to support telemedicine programs in California on a long-term basis. In addition, this award provides funds to support the development of 13 new telemedicine clinic sites in rural San Diego County, where access to specialists is critically needed.
2003
Funding Source:
Purpose:
February 2003 – CTEC was awarded a $9 million, five-year grant for the purpose of supporting initiatives reducing healthcare barriers in rural California through the development/expansion of Regional Rural eHealth Networks statewide. A major component of this award is to also provide training and technical support to CTEC grantees and also to rural providers and communities.
2000
Funding Sources:
Purpose:
February 2000 – $4.25M awarded to augment the previous re-granting effort for Telemedicine & eHealth demonstration projects in medically underserved regions statewide.
March 2000 – CTEC was awarded $1.8M to fund the American Indian Diabetic Teleophthalmology Grant Program (AIDTGP). The goal of the AIDTGP was to create a healthier American Indian community in California through increasing access to retinopathy screening for Indian Health Program diabetic patients using Telemedicine.
1999
Funding Source:
Purpose:
March 1999 – the Center received a $5M grant from The California Endowment to increase the availability and quality of Telemedicine & eHealth statewide by (a) augmenting the resources of CTEC; (b) enhancing the re-granting program to fund and evaluate targeted Telemedicine & eHealth demonstration projects in medically underserved regions statewide; and (c) developing training programs to support the ongoing technical needs of Telemedicine & eHealth projects, including grantees. Over $2.5 million was dedicated for Telemedicine & eHealth projects and networks.
October 1999 – A mini-grant program was established with an allocation of $100,000 and a maximum award of $10,000. Twelve grants were awarded.
November 1999 – $210,000 in supplemental funding was provided by The Endowment to fund an additional 22 mini-grants.
1997
Funding Sources:
Purpose: In 1994, the California Telehealth/Telemedicine Coordination Project was launched by a broadly-based group of healthcare stakeholders who believed that Telemedicine & eHealth technologies were important new tools that could lessen disparities in access to healthcare services and information in California’s medically underserved communities. When the Project issued its final report in late 1996, one of its recommendations was that California needed a statewide resource center to facilitate and promote the development of Telemedicine programs and networks. In response to that recommendation, the California Telemedicine & eHealth Center – CTEC – was established in July 1997. Three years of start-up funding for the Center was provided by the James Irvine Foundation. Subsequent funding from the Sierra Health Foundation supported CTEC’s first Telemedicine grant program, which resulted in six grant awards in support of projects in rural Northern California communities. |