Telemedicine advances are one of the
“Top 10 health stories from Arizona in
the past 125 years”
By Nanc y Ro w e o n
June 4, 2015
C
ongratulations to The Arizona
Republic on its 125 years of
publishing in Arizona. As part of its
anniversary celebration, the newspaper
compiled several historical Top 10 lists,
including “Top 10 Health Stories from
Arizona in the past 125 years,” by Ken
Alltucker.
The list includes the 1918 flu pandemic,
Arizona’s Medicaid launch, the state’s first
heart-transplant surgery, formation of an
early multi-hospital system (Samaritan
Health, now Banner Health), hosting of
a tuberculosis colony in the 1920s and
30s, producing and testing scorpion antivenom, pioneering brain surgery, making
strides in genomic medicine research, the
Affordable Care Act, and telemedicine
advances.
Ronald S. Weinstein, MD, founding director
of the Arizona Telemedicine Program
(ATP), is pleased—but not surprised—
that “Telemedicine Advances” made the
Top 10 list. Arizona has been a national
leader in telemedicine, starting with the
establishment of the ATP at the University
of Arizona in 1996 at the urging of thenRepresentative Robert “Bob” Burns, whom
Dr. Weinstein refers to as “an amazing
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public servant in our state.” Dr. Weinstein
was personally involved, himself, with
early multispecialty telemedicine cases
at the Massachusetts General Hospital in
Boston, in 1968, as a resident physician,
and has been doing pioneering work in
telemedicine ever since.
To name just a few Arizona
telemedicine milestones…
Since 1998, the ATP has met quarterly
with the Arizona Telemedicine Council
on Capitol Hill in Phoenix to present
telemedicine activities and advances
throughout the state. There has always
been a lot to report, including the ATP’s
same-day mammogram results for
Native American women in Tuba City;
the more than 150,000 telepsychiatry
sessions between doctors and rural
patients via the Northern Arizona Regional
Behavioral Health Authority network;
teleconsultations from University of
Arizona specialists to doctors and patients
in Nogales, Yuma, and Sells; Carondelet
Health Network’s telecardiology and
telestroke consultations to southern
Arizona rural hospitals; and the millionplus teleradiology cases throughout the
state.