The USDA awarded $188,000 to Hardin, Mont.-based Bighorn Valley Health Center for telemedicine technology to help expand treatment for opioid addiction, Montana Public Radio reports.
BVHC plans to use the grant to launch a telemedicine program that will virtually connect patients in rural areas to physicians. Using teleconferencing technology and equipment such as a peripheral heart rate device. Physicians will also be able to prescribe patients medications such as Suboxone, which is used to treat opioid addiction, after a virtual consult.
The grant is part of $10 million the USDA secured last year to help expand addiction treatment in rural areas of the U.S.