University of New England to Become Telehealth Education Hub

The University of New England will become a center of telehealth education in Maine thanks to a new program funded by the US Health Resources and Service Administration (HRSA) that aims to increase telehealth education and distribution in rural areas.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, telehealth use expanded significantly, but residents of rural areas still face limited access. Rural communities in northern New England and New York were hit hard by the pandemic due to the combination of emerging virus variants, isolation, and a lack of access to behavioral health services. 

The HRSA-funded Northern New England and New York Telehealth Technology-Enabled Learning Program (NNE-NY TTELP) is led by Medical Care Development, Inc. in Augusta, ME. Under the program, Biddeford-based UNE will become a telehealth hub for the state of Maine and its surrounding rural areas.

The project will aim to address the impacts of the pandemic on long-term care facility patients, rural communities, and residents with behavioral health conditions and substance use disorders.

The northern New England and New York regions tend to see high rates of behavioral health issues and substance use disorders. Due to social isolation from the pandemic, they have seen increased rates of overdose and substance use disorder-related deaths, officials said.

The telehealth program will take several steps to address these ongoing issues. The program and its partners will develop a person-centered learning community that prioritizes interprofessional care and promotes provider partnerships with community members who have faced healthcare struggles.

The program will use Project ECHO (Extension for Community Health Care Outcomes) telemedicine programs and open-access, e-learning portals to provide training for rural primary care providers and long-term care facility staff. The training will offer best practices and help the healthcare professionals address care gaps for patients with behavioral health and substance use disorders.

Part of the grant will go toward the development of an online portal that includes resources to complement and build on the ECHO training sessions. 

The telehealth program will also implement the principles of telehealth in health professions curricula at the University of New England, aiming to teach students about best practices and how to reduce stigma when treating patients.

“The goal is to develop curriculum for students to better understand rural healthcare needs and how telehealth can improve health outcomes, so that UNE students will start to become engaged in everything from telehealth to TeleECHO technologies aimed at establishing new clinical healthcare sites for learning,” Jennifer Morton, director of UNE’s School of Nursing and Population Health, said in the press release.

Several departments at UNE will assist with the telehealth project, including health professions, data science, environmental science, and the Office of the Provost.

Other grant partners include the University of New Hampshire Institute for Health Policy and Practice, which will be the lead ECHO hub, the University of Vermont, University of Maine Center on Aging, MaineHealth, Maine Medical Association, and UNE’s Center for Excellence in Digital Health. 

“Technology changes rapidly, and the more we can think about integrating technology into care, the better chance we have in improving patient outcomes and access to care,” Nan Solomons, PhD, founding director of the Center for Excellence in Digital Health, said in the press release.