Northwest Area Health Education Center/ State Employees Credit Union Telemedicine Mini-Grants are available to help area practices!
Submit your proposal to the Northwest AHEC Practice Support team by August 21st to be eligible.
Up to $10,000 in project assistance and coaching available for area health providers.
Submit your proposal here!
More details are below.
With an aim to support practices in providing telemedicine services, improving the health status of patients, and to prepare for post-COVID realities of using technology in patient care, we have created a unique project for selected providers within the NWAHEC 17-county catchment area. Funded through a partnership with the State Employees Credit Union (SECU), Northwest AHEC invites you to submit a proposal to participate. .
Accepted proposals are eligible for up to:
- $10,000 dollars to fund the project (see details below)
- 10 hours of Practice Support coaching (to help with measure selection, data collection, implementation of new workflows and other quality improvement support)
Proposal eligibility guidelines:
- Project proposes to utilize telemedicine to promote positive health outcomes in North Carolina.
- Facilitated by an MD, DO, NP, PA or Nurse Midwife working at an ambulatory primary care or specialty clinic in the Northwest AHEC seventeen-county region (Alexander, Alleghany, Ashe, Avery, Burke, Caldwell, Catawba, Davidson, Davie, Forsyth, Iredell, Rowan, Stokes, Surry, Watauga, Wilkes, and Yadkin).
- Project follows Institute for Healthcare Improvement’s Plan, Do, Study, Act process. Especially these steps: Setting Aims, Establishing Measures, Selecting Changes, Testing Changes
- Expend requested funds by December 1, 2020 (Project completion deadline December 1, 2021)
- Eligible budget items include: Telemedicine equipment, In-home monitoring devices, Electronic Health Record modules, Broadband expenses, Computer hardware and Peripherals.
- Ineligible budget items include: Food and personnel expenses.
- Maximum budget amount of $10,000.
- Optional MOC Project- Project follows guidelines for Maintenance of Certification Part IV of one of the following specialty boards:
Submission criteria:
Submit applications through the Northwest AHEC online Application portal, including:
- Project description including target population (250 word max)
- How the award will use telemedicine and/or remote patient monitoring to improve health (500 word max)
- How the impact of the award will be measured and reported (250 word max)
- Details about how the requested funds will be spent and a justification of the expenses (250 word max)
- Projected timeline for use of the funds (250 word max)
- Applicant Resume, CV, or Biosketch of applying provider (total 2 page max)
Project Deliverable:
Project funding is designed to assist regional providers in conducting a Quality Improvement Project to explore telemedicine pathways for patient care. Providers have the option of submitting a Maintenance of Certification project using this funding. In exchange for funding the QI project the Northwest AHEC requests a one page summary of the project and lessons learned using standard A3 format provided by December 1, 2020. A follow-up survey will be sent July 1, 2021 to evaluate sustainability of the project.
Selection Process:
Up to ten projects will be selected. Submissions will be blinded and individually scored by members of the project selection team. Scoring criteria includes:
- The quality of the proposal and potential for further project development
- Feasibility to improve health of target group
- Appropriateness of budget and project period request
- All submissions required by August 21. Applicants will be notified of decision on August 26.
- Contact cjones@wakehealth.edu with any questions.
Telemedicine Project Ideas can be found at the Mid-Atlantic Telehealth Resource Center
Evidence for telehealth Implementation:
- Bonini, M., & Usmani, O. S. (2018). Novel methods for device and adherence monitoring in asthma. Current Opinion in Pulmonary Medicine, 24(1), 63–69. https://doi.org/10.1097/mcp.0000000000000439
- Glassgow, A. E., Martin, M. A., Caskey, R., Bansa, M., Gerges, M., Johnson, M., Voorhees, B. V. (2017). An innovative health-care delivery model for children with medical complexity. Journal of Child Health Care, 21(3), 263–272. https://doi.org/10.1177/1367493517712063
- Hoppe, K. K., Williams, M., Thomas, N., Zella, J. B., Drewry, A., Kim, K., Johnson, H. M. (2019). Telehealth with remote blood pressure monitoring for postpartum hypertension: A prospective single-cohort feasibility study. Pregnancy Hypertension, 15, 171–176. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.preghy.2018.12.007
- Pradeepa, R., Rajalakshmi, R., & Mohan, V. (2019). Use of Telemedicine Technologies in Diabetes Prevention and Control in Resource-Constrained Settings: Lessons Learned from Emerging Economies. Diabetes Technology & Therapeutics, 21(S2), S29–S216. https://doi.org/10.1089/dia.2019.0038
- Xu, T., Pujara, S., Sutton, S., & Rhee, M. (2018). Telemedicine in the Management of Type 1 Diabetes. Preventing Chronic Disease, 15(E13). https://doi.org/10.5888/pcd15.170168
- Yatabe, M. S., Yatabe, J., Asayama, K., Staessen, J. A., Mujaj, B., Thijs, L., Ichihara, A. (2017). The rationale and design of reduction of uncontrolled hypertension by Remote Monitoring and Telemedicine (REMOTE) study. Blood Pressure, 27(2), 99–105. https://doi.org/10.1080/08037051.2017.1406306