Celebrating digital innovation at TTUHSC

LUBBOCK, Texas (KCBD) - Telehealth has been a program at Texas Tech for more than 30 years but it was the pandemic that shed a new light on the possibilities.

Let’s say you are one of the six million people in this country with congestive heart failure. You may end up going to the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center to pick up a scale to record your weight.

But this is no ordinary scale. With digital innovation, you don’t have to record anything. You just step on the scale and let the scale do all the work.

Dr. Lori Rice-Spearman, Ph.D., President of the TTUHSC explains, “We can see are they retaining fluid, are they not retaining fluid, and then do really an earlier intervention, which allows for better outcomes for that patient. And sometimes they don’t even have to come into the clinic, they wouldn’t have to drive in from one of these small towns, we’re able to provide that intervention that care with them while they’re in their home.”

Dr. Rice-Spearman says there are many devices that could be sent home with patients and still connect them to their doctors through digital technology. And she believes it makes sense for the HSC to be a research center to test all these digital devices and learn what works best because of the many people we can reach in small rural communities.

She says, “We have campuses in critical locations all across North and West Texas. So, we’re going to build what we call the hub and spoke model. So, we’ll have a hub and each one of our campuses, the counties around that will be the spokes that come into that hub. And then each one of those hubs will work in the area of digital innovation, and also telehealth as well for those underserved communities.”

The TTUHSC is celebrating Telehealth Week next week.

Specifically, there will be a ribbon cutting on Tuesday, Sept. 19, to launch the opening of the university’s new Institute of Telehealth and Digital Innovation.

That will be followed by a three-day conference with presentations and demonstrations including interactive opportunities. Everything is FREE.

And although there will be a lot of health care providers there, this will be a great chance for anyone to go and learn what’s new in digital health care.

You are asked to sign up so organizers can plan for everyone.

For more information and to reserve your seat, visit:

https://tthsclubbock.co1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_3juOAINoanOD52K

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