The Arizona Telemedicine Program Blog

“I go to five to six conferences per year, and this was by far the most interesting, beneficial and relevant to me. Thank you for offering more advanced and in-depth content.”

This is what one attendee had to say about the third annual Telemedicine & Telehealth Service Provider Summit (SPS), held in October 2017. SPS has a track record of garnering praise like this from its attendees. That’s why the Arizona Telemedicine Program and Southwest Telehealth Resource Center are bringing SPS back for the fourth time Oct. 8-9, 2018.

Adults with congenital heart disease have one thing in common:  loss to follow up.   Across the world, children born with congenital heart diagnoses often stop engaging with the medical system when they graduate from high school.  A lack of understanding of the need for lifelong care, no longer having parents insist on appointments, a fear of learning that something new is wrong, and just the business of life: education, work, family are all touted as potential drivers of this precipitous drop-off in cardiac care (https://professional.heart.org/professional/ScienceNews/UCM_464716_Children-with-Congenital-Heart-Disease-Are-Not-Getting-the-Follow-Up-They-Need.jsp).

It is challenging to combat these factors successfully.  However, like all consumers, there are mechanisms to re-engage adults with congenital heart disease in cardiac care: convenience and connection.  Once I recognized that, the answer was right in front of me:  Telemedicine is how I started to bring them back.

In Navajo County, Arizona, Manuel Ono and his wife, Lola, sat down with me last year to tell me about their lives, and how, in their remote and beautiful corner of northern Arizona, they stay connected to the world. The Onos, lifelong residents of Winslow, have been married for over 30 years and are now happily retired, spending many of their days looking after their grandkids. But like almost half of all adults in the U.S., Manuel has multiple chronic health conditions. He is diabetic and is also being treated for congestive heart failure.

Diabetes and heart failure are just two examples of the myriad of complex conditions that send people to the hospital, keep them from the comfort of their homes and loved ones and place a large strain on our country’s over-burdened, under-resourced health care system. Thankfully for the Onos and many others like them, important technological advances and innovative public-private collaborations are helping to combat this issue, enabling patients to easily take their health care into their own hands.

Seniors are becoming more tech savvy and digitally connected than ever before. Smartphone use has doubled in just the last four years with four in 10 seniors using this type of device. Six out of 10 seniors report using the internet, and about half of all seniors – around 24 million -- have internet access in their homes.

Today's technology does more than just make home life more convenient for seniors. It can also prolong their independence. From mobility assistive devices to ridesharing services to online social groups, here are some ways tech can keep seniors engaged, mobile and confident:

The University of Arizona Center for Rural Health is partnering with the Arizona Department of Health Services and other state agencies to train first responders to recognize opioid overdoses and to administer the drug naloxone to prevent fatalities.

The effort is funded with a four-year, $3.1 million grant from the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) to the Arizona Department of Health Services (ADHS). Of the $3.1 million, $2.2 million has been awarded to the UA Center for Rural Health, at the University of Arizona’s Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health.