A $500,000 grant from the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) will help the East Carolina University (ECU) School of Dental Medicine upgrade and expand its teledentistry capacity in rural locations in North Carolina.
The school is one of more than 130 schools and healthcare organizations to receive a Rural Utilities Service Distance Learning and Telemedicine (RUS DLT) grant from the USDA. The grant is the school’s fourth and largest RUS DLT grant to date. The grant program is designed to provide access to education, training, and healthcare resources for rural Americans.
“With this award, we will again modernize our facilities with the latest technologies for collaboration and telemedicine,” said Phillip Allen, the school’s senior director of informatics, “increasing our ability to provide rural residents with a variety of specialty care.”
The school operates 10 clinical sites across North Carolina, including eight community service learning centers in rural locations where senior dental students and residents gain hands-on experience caring for patients. It relies heavily on video teleconferencing to bring students and residents together with faculty to continue their coursework while on rotation.
Faculty, staff, students, and residents at all clinical sites are able to consult with specialists at ECU through sophisticated teledentistry equipment, which can save rural patients the expense of an unwarranted long-distance visit to a specialist.
“Funding this technology also aids our rural residents by alleviating their need to travel for a specialty consult,” said Allen. “In addition to dental medicine, we have partnered with specialty providers across the university to provide patient consultations regarding pregnancy, nutrition, and diabetes care.”
With the grant, the school can replace most of the video conferencing equipment in Ross Hall, the school’s main teaching facility at ECU, and at four of the school’s community service learning centers in rural areas including Ahoskie, Elizabeth City, Lillington, and Sylva.
Upgrades will include video conferencing technology in patient consultation rooms for meetings with specialists and the latest generation intraoral cameras for consultations with dental specialists. Video conferencing equipment for educational seminars and meetings will also be upgraded.
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