Home Telemedicine System for Rural Technology Dependent Children

This project addresses the USDA's first strategic goal, which is to Assist Rural Communities to Create Prosperity by addressing rural healthcare. The care of chronically ill, technology-dependent children at their homes in rural communities can have a significant impact on the cost and quality of health services. The project develops technology for the early intervention of fragile patients, which may mitigate the development of more severe illness that would likely require inpatient hospital care. If emerging medical conditions are not identified early in this patient population, the situation can quickly deteriorate to an emergency that requires very complicated emergency transportation (helicopter) to a Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) in a major city hospital. Most families caring for critically-ill technology-dependent children try to redefine "normal" to fit their children's needs and strive for stability in their routines--routines that are significantly disrupted by even the briefest of hospitalizations in distant locations. In addition to potentially complex and painful medical interventions, rural families in particular experience interruption of their education routines, discontinuity in peer interactions, and a break in the "normality" of their life. The system AME is proposes to develop in this application remotely monitors chronically ill, technology-dependent, pediatric patients at their homes in rural areas in order to reduce hospitalizations. Technology-dependent children are more frequently affected by life-threatening illness than the general population and require specialized care to facilitate recovery and rehabilitation.