Patients in remote rural areas of Northern California will belinked with medical specialists in Sacramento, throughtelemedicine programs to be established by the UC DavisHealth System with a new $1 million grant from the FederalOffice of Rural Health Policy.The three-year award supports telecommunications technologyand staff needed to connect three rural hospitals to the UCDavis Medical Center for specialty consultations andemergency stabilization services.Telemedicine offers a unique way for patients to have accessto specialists and services that are unavailable in their owncommunities without traveling long distances. The technologyuses two-way audio and video connections to transmit medicaldata and real-time images of patients and their physiciansfor long-distance consultations.Under the new grant, patients and doctors at Colusa CommunityHospital in Colusa, Tuolumne General Hospital in Sonora andPlumas District Hospital in Quincy will be linked to medicalcenter specialists."The goal of the program," says Dr. Thomas S. Nesbitt,director of the UC Davis Rural Health and TelemedicinePrograms, "is to supplement the medical services alreadyavailable in these communities, strengthen local health-caresystems, and help rural counties keep health-care dollars inthe local economy."UC Davis Health System launched its first telemedicineprogram in 1992 and has earned national recognition foraccomplishments in the field..