UTHSC’s innovative telehealth network will be featured on this Saturday’s broadcast of the “Weekend Today” show.
Who: The University of Tennessee Health Science Center (UTHSC)
William F. Owen, Jr., MD, Chancellor
What: UTHSC’s innovative telehealth network will be featured on this Saturday’s broadcast of the “Weekend Today” show. The UTHSC Telehealth network, the second largest of its kind in the country, unites the UT campuses with health departments, pharmacies, clinics, rural hospitals and correctional facilities to provide isolated communities with access to specialists and educators who would otherwise not be available in their area.
When: 7:00 — 9:00 a.m. Saturday, June 17, 2006
Where: NBC, (WMC-TV) Channel 5
Why: Marie Tobin, MD, UTHSC associate professor of psychiatry and director of consult liaison services, will be shown treating a patient via the telehealth network, illustrating the significant medical benefits the system brings to patients across the state. According to a June 8 New York Times article, “Psychiatry, especially in rural swaths of the nation that also often have deep social problems like poverty and drug abuse, is emerging as one of the most promising expressions of telemedicine.” UTHSC offers a variety of medical services via the telehealth network; Weekend Today will focus on telepsychiatry for this broadcast.