SECRETARY OF AGRICULTURE TOM VILSACK HOLDS A NEWS TELECONFERENCE ON RURAL HEALTH CARE ISSUES

SECRETARY OF AGRICULTURE TOM VILSACK HOLDS A NEWS TELECONFERENCE ON RURAL HEALTH CARE ISSUES

JANUARY 24, 2011

SPEAKER: SECRETARY OF AGRICULTURE TOM VILSACK

[*] MODERATOR: Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us for today's media briefing with Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. Today he's announcing funding for educational and health care projects for rural America, as well as discussing rural health care. If you'd like to get in on the discussion and ask a question of the secretary, let us know by pressing star one on your touchtone pad.

And now I turn it over to the secretary.

VILSACK: Thank you very much.

And good morning to everyone. Thank you for joining us today.

President Obama and I are committed to building a stronger future for rural America and generate wealth and economic opportunity. USDA is working to help rural communities open up new markets for crops, better utilize natural resources, and obviously produce renewable energy.

But in order for us to be successful, we need to be able to compete in the 21st century in rural America, which means that communities need full access to innovative technologies. Over the past two years, USDA working through its rural utility service has worked to provide rural communities with all the tools they need to create jobs and build prosperous economies for the 21st century.

Using the $2.5 billion from the Recovery Act that the president supported, we've provided grants and loans to deliver high-speed Internet service to rural residents and businesses across the country. When all is said and done, we expect that our investments will bring broadband access to an estimated 1.2 million households, roughly 7 million Americans benefiting, 230,000 businesses and nearly 8,000 anchor institutions like hospitals and libraries.

This investment in broadband is already having an impact, and we've put thousands of Americans back to work laying fiber, designing systems, and constructing towers and lines. But in the long run we want to assure and ensure that rural communities make the best use of this broadband infrastructure to grow strong and healthy communities.

That's why today I'm pleased to announce that USDA will be providing grants to fund 108 distance learning and telemedicine projects in 39 states across the country. These grants, worth a total of $34.7 million, will help schools expand unlimited course offerings to advance educational opportunity and better prepare students in rural communities to compete in the 21st century economy.

They will also help rural medical specialists, who lack the resources available to folks in urban centers, to provide advanced diagnosis for patients or to consult with colleagues at other hospitals miles away.

Just let me give you a couple of examples of what we are funding today. In the state of Ohio, though Holzer Clinic, Incorporated, is receiving a grant that will be used primarily for medical and health care training between the hospital hub and 19 outlying hospitals and clinics in five rural southeastern Ohio counties. This project is going to incorporate practitioner carts as part of a broad distance learning telemedicine initiative.

The ability to have physicians consult with patients at a distance with a wide variety of training courses is going to help build and attract to rural communities a new generation of health care professionals building on the Affordable Care Act, which is also going to provide additional resources and incentives for getting physicians and nurses into these rural communities.

In the state of North Carolina, we're working with the Grahams Children's Health Service of Toe River. These resources are going to be used to fund a school-based tele-health program for school-age children in two counties in western North Carolina.

The My Health e-Schools Project will build upon the network of school-based health providers, nurses, teachers and administrators to provide primary health care, mental health care and nutritional counseling. It will be led by a professional medical staff and enhanced by new digital exam equipment, which will be linked together with videoconferencing technology.

The project will help address students' health problems on-site at 11 public schools in those two counties. The added benefits of this will obviously include better school attendance for students, reducing the needs for parents to take their children to the doctors for basic health care.

In Oklahoma an award worth nearly $500,000 will be used to provide modern video teleconferencing equipment to nearly a dozen hospitals and health centers to connect patients with physicians and other health care professionals to receive continued medical education without long drives.

And in two Colorado school districts, we're going to allow more than 5,000 students across 11 counties to use videoconferencing equipment to attend advanced classes offered by larger schools and universities.

These are just examples of what will take place in over 39 states as a result of this announcement in 108 projects. These investments we're making in telemedicine are on top of the big step forward in rural health care as I mentioned in the last year's health care law, the Affordable Care Act, and we are also obviously working with the Department of Education to include new opportunities as they try to encourage and improve U.S. education.

These investments in technology that I announced today are another step forward for rural America, who for far too long have gotten the short end of the -- the health care stick, as well as a -- as broadband access.

And for decades, innovative technology has helped keep our country -- companies competitive around the world and create jobs at home. Today we're going to help raise a generation that's prepared to compete with students around the world and provide rural Americans with health care they deserve.

We've made historic investments in our rural communities in the last two years to promote the production of renewable energy, based on the announcements we made last week to establish new bio refineries and to take a look at new feedstocks, to improve access to cutting- edge technology for education and health care, which is part of the announcement today, to encourage more doctors and nurses to offer services in small towns, which is the result of the Affordable Care Act.

And we know that this work will build healthy, strong rural communities that will support our nation's economy and where folks will want to raise their families and pursue the American dream.

So with that, I'd be happy to take questions. Again, it's 108 projects in 39 states and one territory. Sixty-three will provide distance learning services, and 45 will be focused on telemedicine.

MODERATOR: We have someone on the line to ask a question of you, Mr. Secretary.

QUESTION: Hello. Can you hear me?

VILSACK: Yes.

QUESTION: OK, good. Secretary, thanks for taking my call. I'm actually with Alaska Public Radio, and so I'm interested in the project specifically for Alaska. I see that they're both for school districts as well as a health corporation.

Can you specifically talk about these areas where we're not talking agricultural rural areas? We're talking about these villages that are so remote and so far away. What can they actually benefit? I mean, tell us more about details for these very remote places.

VILSACK: Well, there -- as you may know, there are four projects in Alaska, one of which involves the Norton Sound Health Corporation. And that is going to provide telemedicine services. And what this is is basically videoconferencing, which allows 16 isolated communities in northwestern Alaska, an area that has very little transportation. Most transportation involves expensive and dangerous airplane rides for those who might be very, very sick.

Videoconferencing can -- can eliminate unnecessary patient transport and increase the speed at which doctors in that northwestern part of the state can provide services, can have a quicker diagnosis when you've got videoconferencing experts located in Anchorage or perhaps even in the lower 48, might be connected to those patients and those physicians in northwestern Alaska and be able to determine from the videoconferencing the nature of the problem that needs to be addressed and -- and the treatment that's required.

In the -- I'm probably not going to pronounce this properly, but in the Kuspuk School District, that's really designed to upgrade and expand distance learning program for the school district.

Essentially, when -- when small rural schools are confronted with the need to provide basic education, at the same time there are going to be students that need to have advanced placement courses or will want the opportunity to have the chance to go to community college or university while they're in high school to be able to get additional credit before they actually graduate from high school, that's extremely difficult for a rural school to be able to provide.

And the reason it's difficult to say just simply don't have the resources to be able to hire a teacher that might be teaching advanced placement chemistry when only one or two students in the entire school might be in a position, because the student body is so small, to take advantage of that advanced placement course.

Well, if you've got videoconferencing, if you distance learning, then that school district can be linked to a variety of other school districts around the state and, again, the lower 48, where an advanced chemistry course or advanced placement math or advanced placement history, whatever it might be, can be taught through the videoconferencing process.

We're using the same thing in the North Slope Borough School District, same kind of opportunity to expand distance learning, videoconferencing and as well as they Alaska Gateway School District, 11 schools and that rural villages in the interior of Alaska.

And again, it's -- it's really designed to provide expanded course offerings at a very inexpensive way for school districts so that they can meet the needs of all of their students. Whether it's bright students who need college credit or kids who want to pursue a community college trade opportunity, there's a lot of learning that can be done through videoconferencing.

MODERATOR: Reporters, if you want to ask a question of Secretary Vilsack, let us know by pressing star one on your touchtone pad. We continue with callers on the line. This time we do have Arkansas Radio Network. Just go ahead.

QUESTION: Thank you.

Good morning. And I appreciate you making yourself available, Secretary Vilsack. Can you tell me about the two Arkansas projects in Hot Springs and Hope?

VILSACK: Yes, two projects. The University of Arkansas Community College at Hope, is going to use the resources, approximately $185,000, to establish and to install the videoconferencing equipment that will allow it to use existing infrastructure that will allow them to reach out to rural schools and urban schools as well in southwest Arkansas.

Again, it's an opportunity for this community college to be able to offer courses for bright young students potentially so that they can actually get a couple of college credits or perhaps a credit towards an associate degree out of the way before they begin college, before they get out of high school.

This saves families money. It's obviously an attraction for bright students or students who need technical information and -- and certifications to be able to become unemployable after they graduate from high school.

The Arkansas School for Mathematics, Science and the Arts is also going to get some distance learning technology, which will be directed towards trying to reduce high school dropout rates, improving math and science departments by expanding or selections.

And, hopefully, with this technology, the school districts in rural areas will be able to attract good teachers and be able to retain good teachers, because they know even though the challenges may be great in these rural schools, they have access to the best and finest technology.

MODERATOR: Next on the line?

QUESTION: Yes, thank you.

Hi, Secretary Vilsack. Just a quick question, how much of the -- and maybe you said this and I missed it -- how much of the 34.7 million is devoted to the -- to the health care services and how much to the educational? Can you break that down?

VILSACK: I can. There are 108 projects, and what I can tell you is in terms of the number of projects, 63 will provide distance learning services and 45 will be directed toward this telemedicine. I don't have the breakdown of -- of the -- the cost of those $34.7 million in grants in terms of the 63 that are providing distance learning or the 45 with telemedicine, but my -- my sense would be it's probably not -- not too -- not too off the mark that 60 percent or so is probably for distance learning and 40 percent for telemedicine.

QUESTION: Of the 34.7 million?

VILSACK: Correct.

QUESTION: OK. Thank you.

MODERATOR: Reporters, if you want to ask a question, let us know by pressing star one on your touchtone phone.

QUESTION: Hi, Secretary Vilsack. I was hoping to hear a little bit more about the project here in California.

VILSACK: All right. Let me -- I'm going to pull some documents on the California projects. While that's happening, let me give you some additional background.

We've been operating this program for some time. In the fiscal year 2009, we awarded 34.9 million in grants to 111 projects in 35 states. Since its inception, this distance learning and telemedicine program has funded over a thousand projects in -- in 48 states.

And the applicants are required to -- to provide a minimum of 15 percent of matching funds, and the awards range anywhere from 50,000 to 500,000. The California project is -- is the Fall River Joint Unified School District. This grant of almost $130,000 is going to offer equipment purchases for roughly 1,150 students in the rural county of Shasta in northeast California.

This is going to allow the school district to save money by arranging for virtual field trips. This allows students who live perhaps 50 to 85 miles from the closest city to basically have an opportunity to tour virtually areas in their community, around their community, in distances that are probably too far for the school district to afford bus trips and that kind of thing.

This is also going to be -- this network is also going to be used to provide professional development. And that becomes extremely important in terms of making sure that teachers in the district are up to speed with the latest and greatest activities. And when you have good, strong professional development, it's easier to retain your teachers and certainly easier to -- to attract good teachers.

MODERATOR: Next on the line?

QUESTION: Thanks, Susan.

Secretary Vilsack, thank you very much. Could you talk a little bit about the Schuyler County Hospital District Project in Illinois, please?

VILSACK: Sure. We'll pull that up, take a second here. This is a telemedicine opportunity for Schuyler County Hospital to -- to fund a portion of a digital mammography system for the Culbertson Memorial Hospital. It will provide mammograms services to nearby hospitals in -- in Schuyler, Cass and Fulton counties.

This is another example of an opportunity where women can have mammograms. They can be examined and looked at in a relatively short period of time without women traveling great distances to experts and without a long and protracted wait, which, when we're dealing with certain forms of cancer, is obviously very, very important that we get the diagnosis is quickly as possible. So this is a distant telemedicine issue.

QUESTION: What I was going to ask you, once the applications have been approved, how soon will these programs be up and running for people to participate?

VILSACK: Well, I think I was going to ask Jonathan Adelstein to -- to weigh in on this, but my sense would be that -- that since we're talking about videoconferencing and -- and purchasing of equipment, that we're not talking about a great -- great delay.

But, Jonathan, maybe you can elaborate.

ADELSTEIN: (Inaudible) many of these will be up and running very quickly. These schools and hospitals and clinics are really anxious to get started. Some of them, as a matter fact, have already purchased some of the equipment in anticipation of a grant. They've got these projects under way already.

Some of them, when I visited in Colorado last week, already had a interactive virtual whiteboard that was up and running. So they knew they were going to win. They felt good about it. And they did. These projects will, I think, begin very quickly after the awards are made. MODERATOR: OK. We go back to our phone lines.

QUESTION: Good morning, Mr. Secretary. Could you detail a bit for us the Vermont and New York projects?

VILSACK: Sure. We'll -- we're calling those up right now.

The Vermont project is the Wyndham Northeast Supervisory Union in addition to the South Burlington School District. The Wyndham Northeast Supervisory Union is a interactive videoconferencing and distance learning system that's going to allow and provide support for eight schools and three school districts in rural Vermont.

Currently, because of the low enrollment in those rural schools, there is only one teacher per subject at the schools, which obviously restricts class availability. It's the kind of thing I was talking about before. When you make online courses available, you expanded dramatically the course selection for young people, and they're better prepared to go on to college or community college with some success.

The same kind of thing is going to happen with the South Burlington School District. Videoconferencing equipment is going to be purchased, which expands higher education opportunities, more educational opportunities. They're also going to use this to use this to -- to better educate youngsters about children and teen sexual crime prevention, which is obviously a public safety use.

And there are a number of projects in New York. I was just going to touch on a couple of them. In Jefferson, Lewis, Hamilton and Herkimer and Oneida, BOCES projects will connect 11 goals in central and western New York with videoconferencing opportunities.

In Otsego, the Northern Catskills Board of Cooperative Education Services, also a distance learning project, it's going to create connections with schools and -- and better improve interoperability, which is the capacity of school districts to more effectively communicate with each other -- again, virtual field trips and class selections being expanded.

In the Finger Lakes Migrant Health Care Project, this is going to expand a farm network tele-health network, which will be connecting eight migrant clinics and eight community child wellness centers in several areas of rural New York to hospitals and clinics in -- in Syracuse, Geneva and Cortland for telemedicine.

And Onondaga, Cortland, Madison, BOCES is a distance learning opportunity, Project United Consortium in the Lewis Central School District also a distance learning opportunity affecting 4,600 teachers, and then the Hillside Family of Agencies. This is a nonprofit provider of education, mental health and residential treatment services to young people and their families.

This project will build upon and extend a telemedicine system, which links three rural campuses of this -- of this agency with the organization's main campus in Rochester. What this will do is it will offer 24/7 psychiatric and pediatric tele-health consultation services, crisis response, medication administration and other services to sort of deal with the shortage of nurses and rural health providers in that four-county area in Western and Central New York.

MODERATOR: Our next call on the line.

QUESTION: Thank you.

Good morning, Mr. Secretary -- if you could outline the South Dakota project for us.

VILSACK: There are three projects in South Dakota, and these are telemedicine projects. What this is going to do -- it deals with the Avera Health System. And essentially, what we're doing is we're finding the eConsult telemedicine project, which is going to connect 51 end-users to 20 specialty clinics.

Among the specialties that will be available to rural end-users are oncology, pediatrics, neonatology, gynecology, endocrinology. These consultations will be conducted via videoconferencing equipment. This program is in -- in the area in South Dakota, is primarily focusing on Native American frail and elderly and other rural residents, who need these kinds of specialties.

The projects will also include emergency service capabilities, which will provide for opportunities for emergency care to be more quickly given or diagnosis to be given not only in South Dakota, but also in western -- in -- in western Iowa and also in parts of North Dakota.

And the last project is, again, an expansion of -- of tele-health specialty consultations in tele-radiology. We can have x-rays taken of individuals in a rural hospital, but no one with the expertise to perhaps take a look at them, so they in the past have been sent to tertiary care centers for review.

Now with the videoconferencing, they'll be able to have a radiologist look at those x-rays, look at those test results, be able to give you a diagnosis or -- or a consult almost immediately, which obviously saves time and money, the very similar kinds of projects around the -- the state of South Dakota, North Dakota and Iowa.

MODERATOR: Reporters, if you want to get a full listing of all of the 108 projects in the various states, you can log on to the USDA website, and you can get full details of every project in every jurisdiction so that you can have that at the ready for you.

With that, we have no more questions.

VILSACK: Just one other comment, and that is that both the telemedicine and -- and distance learning education are tied to economic opportunity. If you are trying to attract a business or industry to a small rural community, sometimes it becomes difficult if you don't have a trained work force or an educated workforce.

The ability to expand course offerings in the small rural schools is vital to these young people being able to get the information and knowledge that they need to be successful.

It's also true that if you're a plant manager, you're probably concerned about the employees' safety, especially if you're in a small manufacturing facility. The ability of a small hospital or clinic to be connected to specialists through telemedicine -- very important in terms of being able to assure your workers that they'll have first- rate health care, even if they are working in a relatively remote area.

So this is about job growth today. It's about expanded economic opportunity in the future, and it's about connecting rural America to the rest of the country and the rest of the world, which is a very big priority of President Obama's and a big priority of ours here at USDA.

MODERATOR: We have one more question, if we can slip that in.

QUESTION: I apologize for the poor phone connection probably, but I'm from Kentucky, wondering about telemedicine projects in Kentucky.

MODERATOR: Can you repeat your question? We had difficulty hearing you.

QUESTION: Yes, and I apologize. I have kind of a bad phone connection. Any telemedicine projects in Kentucky, please?

VILSACK: There are two. There's one -- there's one project in Kentucky. The Ephraim McDowell Health Care Foundation is receiving a grant of approximately $160,000, and this is a full field digital mammography operation at three fixed sites, plus an onboard mobile medical vehicle, which will provide opportunities for emergency services.

MODERATOR: Our last question.

QUESTION: I apologize. This is a little off topic, but probably everyone else got their question in. This morning President Sarkozy of France (inaudible) G-20 (inaudible) better global (inaudible) better database of intercultural protections. This is a way to improve transparency and reduce speculation (inaudible).

VILSACK: You -- you...

(Inaudible) other global compilation of agricultural production (inaudible) necessary. And what would produce (inaudible).

MODERATOR: Can you hear me?

QUESTION: (Inaudible) coordination of speculative limits (inaudible).

VILSACK: I'm sorry. You were breaking up considerably. What I might suggest is that you give our communications team a call, and we'll try to get a response. I caught a part of your question, and it's a complicated question, I suspect, having to do with President Sarkozy's interest in -- in establishing greater transparency and setting up reserve systems.

And it's a -- it's a complicated subject, and I -- I don't want to answer a question unless I know precisely what it is, so if we could ask you to communicate to our communications team, we'll try to get at your response.

MODERATOR: Everybody who was on the line today, thank you for calling in. And again, if you want to get the full details of the projects that we announced today, just go to our website at www.usda.gov. Thank you for joining us.

END