Patients in rural Vermont seeking treatment for pain often face time-consuming travel to large regional hospitals and long wait times to see specialists. Now UVM's medical school is using a new telemedicine program to connect those specialists with primary care practitioners in rural areas to help patients get better care more quickly.
Dr. Mark Pasanen is an associate professor at UVM's Larner College of Medicine and the program director of the Internal Medicine Residency Program. He's helping adapt Project ECHO - which was pioneered by the University of New Mexico's School of Medicine to better treat hepatitis C - to help general practitioners consult with specialists here in Vermont.
Dr. Pasanen joined Vermont Edition to explain how the project works and how it's being used to help treat pain and combat opioid addiction in Vermont.
Broadcast live on Wednesday, May 16, 2018 at noon; rebroadcast at 7 p.m.
