The Vermont Tele-Trauma Project:
Advanced Interventions and Outcome Assessment

The Office for Advancement in Telehealth (OAT) has provided funding for the Vermont Teletrauma Project.  We will use a two-way interactive video telemedicine system to reduce disparities in clinical care and medical education by: (1) providing 24-hour access to trauma center specialty surgeons (trauma surgeons, neurosurgeons, vascular surgeons, pediatric surgeons), at work and at their homes, and (2) educating rural ambulance personnel and doctors, who have a low volume and limited access to educational opportunities.

The goals of the project, beyond expanding the technology within Vermont, include more extensive evaluation of the impact of telemedicine after rural trauma interventions upon outcomes, complications of trauma, transfer rates, and the costs of care, including telemedicine system costs.  It is expected that the use of this system will improve outcomes and reduce complications and costs.

Additionally, as a supplement to the Vermont Teletrauma Project, and also funded by OAT, Fletcher Allen is leading the development of a technical assistance document and creating outcome measures for our specialty area of teletrauma and emergency care.  The goals of this project are to assist other telemedicine programs in implementing their own teletrauma service. They would then use the standard group of outcome measures to evaluate the contribution of the teletrauma application to improving health care services.  The indicators and data collection will be tested in our own system first as a pilot study.

Ultimately, the expanded use of telemedicine technology, for training, clinical consultation, and mentoring will help reduce the disparities in care of the injured patient in rural America. 

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