University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences in Little Rock received a multimillion-dollar grant to establish a national research center that will examine digital health in rural areas, according to a report from Paragould Daily Press.
Six details:
1. The Health Resources & Services Administration, a federal agency, awarded UAMS the four-year, $3.8 million grant that covers the research center and initiatives to examine effectiveness of digital health for rural areas and hospitals.
2. The new center will be responsible for examining the way digital health affects outcomes and rural hospital profitability. It will also educate rural hospitals on best practices for digital health.
3. UAMS established its Institute for Digital Health & Innovation in 2019 and the new center will fit within it. Joseph Stanford, MD, is the institute's interim director.
4. The new center will collect data and provide analysis that policymakers and healthcare providers can use to make decisions about rural healthcare in the future.
5. In its first year, the new center aims to examine:
• Federal reimbursement for remote patient monitoring
• Obstetric digital health services and outcomes
• Impact of digital health addressing behavioral health needs on organization budgets
• Models for delivering digital stroke care
• Profitability comparisons between rural hospitals that do and don't use digital health
6. The research center will work with UAMS' college of medicine, college of pharmacy and college of public health.