[1st-mile-nm] FCC: Southwest Telehealth Grant

[Dale Alverson]

The South West Telehealth Access Grid is funded at our full 2 year budget request of $15,561,181 from FCC (plus matching of $4,022,508 = total budget for project = $19,583,689)!   The announcement  has some errors in that it states that our proposal includes Texas and Colorado and 60 sites, whereas our  proposal actually includes mainly Arizona and the Southwest IHS Telehealth Consortium along with New Mexico and over 500 sites. Texas, Colorado have some sites listed within the Albuquerque Area IHS network and Nevada, California and Utah have some sites within the Phoenix Area IHS network as part of our proposal. Therefore our proposal actually includes 7 states; NM, AZ, CO, NV, CA, TX, UT! The announcement contains the exact Title of our proposal and the exact budget requested. We''ll contact FCC  to correct and clarify the announcement. The most important part of this announcement is that we'll receive our full budget exactly as requested. We have not received any other official notification, such as start up date etc. Overall this should be a very significant boost to enhancing the telehealth network infrastructure in our region. Congratulations to everyone.

The FCC just announced that it has dedicated $417 million over three years
for the construction of 69 statewide or regional broadband telehealth
networks in 42 states and three U.S. territories under the Rural Health Care
Pilot Program.  
 
The organizations that have been deemed eligible for the pilot program must
still go through formal application process through the Universal Services
Administrative Corporation which will be administering the program.
Participants are eligible for universal service funding to support up to 85
percent of the costs associated with the design, engineering and
construction of their broadband health care networks.  In order to ensure
quality and efficiency, all projects must be competitively bid, and are
subject to quarterly reviews, and stringent oversight and audits.  

--Dale

Dale C. Alverson, MD
Professor of Pediatrics and Regents' Professor
Medical Director, Center for Telehealth and Cybermedicine Research
University of New Mexico
Health Sciences Center
1005 Columbia, NE
Albuquerque, NM 87106
Office: (505) 272-8633
Fax: (505) 272-0800
e-mail: dalverson at salud.unm.edu
Web: http://hsc.unm.edu/som/telehealth
 


>>> Richard Lowenberg <rl at radlab.com> 11/23/2007 10:16 AM >>>
The FCC has announced the awardees of telehealth grants across the nation.
Congratulations to those in New Mexico and neighboring states that will
participate in the funded initiative noted below.   Stay tuned for more
detailed information on this.   The complete list of awarded projects is
posted on the FCC web site: www.fcc.gov 
rl
----

Southwest Telehealth Access Grid (Arizona, New Mexico, Texas,
Colorado) - Network will distribute telemedicine clinical services,
educational and training programs to approximately 60 facilities within
the states and the Southwest Indian Services consortium.  Speeds will
range between 1 Gbps and 10 Gbps, with connections to Internet2 and
National LambdaRail.  Maximum support: $15,561,181.


------------------------------------------------
Richard Lowenberg
P.O.Box 8001, Santa Fe, NM 87504
505-989-9110,  505-603-5200 cell

New Mexico Broadband Initiative
www.1st-mile.com/newmexico 
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