Derek Poarch, chief of the Federal Communications Commission’s Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau, announces a $3.6 million grant to Western Carolina University, the Eastern Band of the Cherokee Indians, and the Jackson County Department of Public Health.

Western Carolina University, the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians and the Jackson County Department of Public Health are partners in the first project in the nation funded through a $417 million federal effort to expand health care access to rural America through the creation of broadband “telehealth” networks in 42 states and three U.S. territories.

Derek Poarch, chief of the Federal Communications Commission’s Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau, announced Monday, Nov. 19, the awarding of $3.6 million in Rural Health Care Pilot Project grant funding to WCU, which will oversee construction of a broadband network linking health care agencies in Cherokee and across several Western North Carolina counties.

“Broadband technology is increasingly changing the way that health care is delivered and received,” Poarch said. “It is our vision that every health care facility in the nation will be connected with one another through broadband telehealth networks for the benefit of patients everywhere.”

The project is part of a nationwide effort to use broadband Internet capacity to support the efficient delivery of health care through “telemedicine,” reducing costs and travel time for consumers, helping decrease medical errors, and streamlining the process for sharing critical patient-care information electronically, he said.

When complete, the project will enable 225 health care facilities in Jackson, Macon, Graham and Swain counties and on the Qualla Boundary to connect to an existing regional fiber ring, allowing them to quickly share health care records about patients in remote sites across the mountains. The network will provide for more rapid and coordinated responses to public health emergencies – such as bioterrorism attacks, pandemics or disease-related outbreaks – and will facilitate coordination with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and other public health agencies.

The grant funding, to be issued in annual installments of $1.2 million over three years, is made possible by an application written by professors Cynthia Brown, Lisa Briggs and Karen Mason of WCU’s department of applied criminology, which houses Western’s programs in emergency and disaster management studies.

Linda Seestedt-Stanford, dean of WCU’s College of Health and Human Sciences, called the project an outstanding example of the university’s increasing efforts to engage with the community and to apply faculty expertise to help solve regional problems.

“This grant provides resources to create an Internet infrastructure, but it also represents an unprecedented opportunity for both the Cherokee people and Western Carolina University to develop an infrastructure of confidence and support that can benefit all of us in learning, service to our communities, and the achievement of quality health care,” said Seestedt-Stanford.

“The Internet is a connection. It represents a bridge from the present to the future for so many rural residents,” she said. “So, too, does the partnership that created this grant – a partnership that has the potential to take the Eastern Band of the Cherokee Indians and Western Carolina University to a new level, one that supports each other in learning for the betterment of all of our communities.”

Larry Blythe, principal vice chief of the Eastern Band of the Cherokee Indians, said the network’s ability to provide instant access to critical health care records will prove valuable not just to residents of Cherokee, but throughout the region – and beyond. “This will make a great deal of difference across rural America,” Blythe said. “Locally, it won’t just benefit our tribal membership, but it will benefit people throughout the entire region. And we have tribal members in counties across Western North Carolina.”

Brian McMahan, chairman of the Jackson County Board of Commissioners, reminded the crowd of the advances that have been made in medicine in the WNC mountains since the days when doctors would make house calls on horseback, armed only with knowledge and the contents of a little black bag.

“With this grant, we will be able to provide services to our citizens that were once not possible,” McMahan said. “We will have a level of health care once available only in the largest metropolitan areas.”

Also speaking at the announcement in support of the project were U.S. Rep. Heath Shuler and Mike Parker, chair of the Cherokee Tribal Council.

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Last modified: Monday, Nov. 26, 2007