CTN Telemedicine Core Facility: This facility was set up in 2006 (P20RR020146-03), and expanded with two supplements, including a ARRA supplement (3P20RR020146-05S1). This Core includes real-time teleconferencing and diagnostic quality imaging equipment for 20 rural hospitals and a central Mediasite facility. Weekly telemedicine conferences on perinatology allow our community of health care personnel, including physicians, nurses and therapists, to participate live, to gain continuing medical education (CME) credit, and to help develop therapeutic and other guidelines.
The Core runs the Pediatric Physician Learning and Collaborative Education (Peds PLACE) program.
Peds PLACE involves a weekly educational teleconference in real-time, followed by a consultation hour, across up to 25 neonatal intensive care units or delivery facilities that account for >95% of all births in the state (total ~40,000 per year).
Consensus guidelines are developed in collaboration with physicians across the state and these are posted in the website for future reference and education.
Telenursery is the research arm of PedsPLACE that seeks to decrease mortality, especially among low birth weight babies.
Since the start of PedsPLACE in 2006, the mortality rate in live births has significantly decreased from 8.5 per thousand to 7 per thousand.
This amounts to saving ~60 babies per year, every year from now on.