Media Alert

For more information, contact:

Anne Manning

University of Tennessee Health Science Center

Communications and Marketing

(901) 448-4072.

 

University of Tennessee Health Science Center Telehealth Network to be featured on “Weekend Today”

 

Who:           The University of Tennessee Health Science Center (UTHSC)

William F. Owen, Jr., MD, Chancellor

 

What:         UTHSC’s innovative telehealth network will be featured on this Saturday’s broadcast of the “Weekend Today” show. The UTHSC Telehealth network, the second largest of its kind in the country, unites the UT campuses with health departments, pharmacies, clinics, rural hospitals and correctional facilities to provide isolated communities with access to specialists and educators who would otherwise not be available in their area.

 

When:         7:00 – 9:00 a.m.

Saturday, June 17, 2006

 

Where:       NBC, (WMC-TV) Channel 5

 

 

Why:           Marie Tobin, MD, UTHSC associate professor of psychiatry and director of consult liaison services, will be shown treating a patient via the telehealth network, illustrating the significant medical benefits the system brings to patients across the state. According to a June 8 New York Times article, “Psychiatry, especially in rural swaths of the nation that also often have deep social problems like poverty and drug abuse, is emerging as one of the most promising expressions of telemedicine.” UTHSC offers a variety of medical services via the telehealth network; Weekend Today will focus on telepsychiatry for this broadcast.

 

As the flagship statewide academic health system, the University of Tennessee Health Science Center is focused on a four-tier mission of education, research, patient care and community service, all in support of a single goal: to improve the health of Tennesseans. Offering a broad range of post-graduate training opportunities, the main campus, with its seven colleges, is in Memphis.  UTHSC has additional College of Medicine campus locations in Knoxville and Chattanooga.  For more information, visit www.uthsc.edu.