title: Design and implementation of an urban/rural Telehealth Network for the Evaluation of Abused Children: implications for global primary care applications.
abstract: To meet the increasing need for rapid medical evaluation of allegations of child abuse in rural areas and the paucity of trained professionals to provide these evaluations, a model telemedicine network was designed and implemented initially in the State of Florida, USA. The utilization of various types of equipment, transmission modes, and electronic peripherals, will be discussed, as well as utilization of physician extenders for assessment. The expansion of this system for other medical uses will be summarized. Experiences in replication of the model in a southern Alabama rural county will be detailed.
authors.affiliation: University of Florida, Jacksonville, FL 32203-0279, USA. Jwhitworth@abusenet.org
authors.forename: J M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Whitworth
authors.forename: H C
authors.initials: HC
authors.lastname: Mullins
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Morse
mesh_terms: D002648:Child; D002649:Child Abuse / Q000175:diagnosis*; D005431:Florida; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D019114:Remote Consultation / Q000295:instrumentation; D019035:Rural Health Services; D013685:Telecommunications; D017216:Telemedicine