Oklahoma lawmakers are considering a bill that would create a
telemedicine pilot program aimed at helping rural primary care providers
identify and treat patients with Alzheimer's and dementia.
February 04, 2019
- Oklahoma lawmakers are mulling a telemedicine pilot program aimed at
training rural healthcare providers to treat patients living with Alzheimer’s.
SB 437
would, if approved, create a Project ECHO platform. Project ECHO
(Extension for Community Health Outcomes) uses a hub-and-spoke
model to connect rural and remote practitioners with specialists to discuss
cases that would otherwise be sent to large — and distant — health systems.
Under the bill,
introduced by State Sen. Adam Pugh, the program would enable one neurologist
identified by state health officials to teach rural primary care providers how
to identify and treat Alzheimer’s and dementia. The bill also states that the
neurologist would not be compensated for running the virtual care network.
Roughly 64,000
Oklahomans are living with Alzheimer’s disease, according to the Alzheimer’s
Association, and that number is expected to grow to 76,000 by
2025.
The bill’s
supporters say the telehealth platform would help improve care management for
Oklahomans who live in rural parts of the state and don’t have easy access to
care providers. It would also help PCPs in rural communities to care for more
of their patients, rather than being forced to refer them to distant
specialists.
The bill is supported by
the Oklahoma branch of the Alzheimer’s Association, which says
Oklahomans face a six- to-nine-month wait to see a neurologist in person. But
the group also wants to see more neurologists in the state, and is pushing for
changes in state law that would incentivize specialists by paying for some of
their student loans.
If established, the
program would be the second in the state. The Oklahoma State University Center
for Health Sciences has a Project
ECHO platform in place for education and training on issues like
addiction and hepatitis C. Last year the university added Alzheimer’s education
to that platform.
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