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Magnolia Regional Medical Center and other South Arkansas hospitals will receive portable carts that will include a touch-screen monitor, keyboard and a mouse as well as a webcam, microphone and speakers.
Magnolia Regional Medical Center and other South Arkansas hospitals will receive portable carts that will include a touch-screen monitor, keyboard and a mouse as well as a webcam, microphone and speakers.
Several South Arkansas hospitals, including Magnolia Regional Medical Center, will benefit from a grant designed to expand long-distance learning opportunities.
The University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences received a $737,882 grant from the United States Department of Agriculture that will go toward the purchase of equipment that will be distributed to 36 sites around the state.
Six prisons are also included in the project.
The grant was awarded to the UAMS Institute for Digital Health & Innovation. UAMS will match the grant with $110,700.
Nearly half of the state’s population lives in rural areas with insufficient access to medical providers, according to the institute. These areas rely on digital health and distance-learning equipment, some of which hasn’t been updated in over a decade.
The portable carts will include a touch-screen monitor, keyboard and a mouse as well as a webcam, microphone and speakers. The equipment can be used to display information or connected to a computer to share content in meetings.
The equipment, provided through the USDA’s Distance Learning and Telemedicine (DLT) program, will provide medical centers and penal facilities with unlimited access to health and recreational programming that was previously inaccessible.
“We are happy to provide this equipment to our partner organizations and thankful to the USDA for their support,” said Joseph Sanford, M.D., director of the UAMS Institute for Digital Health & Innovation.
In addition to MRMC, hospitals in Helena, El Dorado, Camden, Crossett and Warren, and other rural areas around the state, will have equipment installed later this year. Also receiving installations will be the Arkansas Department of Corrections’ Tucker Unit, Varner Prison, the Delta Regional Unit in Dermott, North Central Prison in Calico Rock, the McPherson Unit in Newport and the Mississippi County Work Re-Entry facility in Luxora.
The carts will allow the prisons to partner with higher-learning institutes and other groups to offer college courses and GED training in addition to recreational offerings and substance use and sexual violence recovery programs.
“This grant expands programming opportunities for those housed at the Varner, North Central, Tucker, Delta Regional and McPherson units and the Mississippi County Work Release Center,” Department of Corrections Secretary Solomon Graves said. “The tele-video carts will allow inmates to virtually participate in programs otherwise unavailable at their facilities. Additionally, the technology will extend training options for staff, who will be able to attend training sessions, presentations, and lectures regardless of geographical distance.”
“We are looking forward to continuing to work with the Department of Corrections to determine the many ways in which this equipment can be utilized to the benefit of all involved. Securing the equipment was the necessary first step in opening up the opportunities to come,” said Melissa Zielinski, Ph.D., an assistant professor in the College of Medicine’s Department of Psychiatry, who worked with the Department of Corrections to include their facilities in the grant application.
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