Nevada Rural Hospital Partners Foundation
4600 Kietzke Lane, Suite I-209
Reno, NV 89502
www.nrhp.org

Robin Keith
Ph: 775-827-4770
Fax: 775-827-0939
Email: robin@nrhp.org

Network Partners: Compressus 101 Constitution Avenue, NW, Suite 800
Washington, DC 20001

Project Purpose: The program enables rural and frontier hospitals to capture digital radiographic images, implement Picture Archive Computer Systems, integrate patient information with those diagnostic images, and
transmit them over an existing, secure wide area network to a new shared, centralized image archive. While initially focused on radiology, the system will support any type of digital diagnostic image. The program enhances access by rural physicans to virtually instant diagnostic support across great geographic distance, and is a dynamic example of how small, autonomous hospitals can share technology to reduce cost, improve quality, and increase workforce productivity.

Outcomes Expected: Key outcomes include: 1) Reduction in the cost of x-ray film by 30 percent as measured by actual “before and after” hospital film expenditures; 2) Increases in staff productivity as measured by “before
and after” time and cost studies for film retrieval and film scanning; 3) Standards-based interoperability between existing and new equipment as measured by system testing and monitoring; and 4) Local and distant physician satisfaction as measured by written survey.

Service Area: Phase One includes four rural hospitals serving 33,000 people, all in HPSAs. When fully implemented, the program will include 11 rural hospitals serving 310,000 rural residents in 14 counties covering
about 91,000 square miles. Ten of the hospitals serve areas with HPSA, MUA, and/or partial or full dental and mental health HPSA designations.

Services Provided: Digital image capture, transmission, archiving and retrieval. Formed in 1987, Nevada Rural Hospital Partners supports fifteen autonomous rural hospitals with a wide variety of services. Examples include advocacy, shared expertise, a revolving capital loan pool, various insurance products, group contracts, a teleradiology network, critical access designation support, and shared information technology.

Equipment: The program will use Konica Express Computed Radiography units, and Compressus RadSight PACS gateways and central archive.

Transmission: The program will use multi-application full T1 transmission.

University of Nevada School of Medicine
Office of Medical Research/338 Senior Associate Dean
1664 N. Virginia Street
Reno, NV 89557-0161
www.unr.edu/med/

David M. Lupan, PhD
Ph: 775-784-4908
Fax: 775-327-2008
Email: dmlupan@med.unr.edu

Network Partners: Not Applicable.

Project Purpose: To develop of a premier Center for Biomedical Imaging on the School of Medicine campus at the University of Nevada, Reno (UNR). This Center will support biomedical research within the School and the community of scientists at the University who have a need for high-end confocal microscopy. Resources will be used for purchasing several scanning confocal microscopes, and for hiring professional personnel who will operate the instrument and be responsible for training of this
technology to graduate students, post-doctoral fellows, and the School of Medicine’s scientists.

Outcomes Expected: New multi-photon confocal microscopy instrumentation in a Center for Biomedical Imaging will directly benefit School scientists by providing access to technology that does not presently exist in the region. The Center will facilitate the development of collegiality and interdisciplinary interaction of scientists. A secondary benefit will be the nurturing of excitement for scientific exploration in the next generation of undergraduate and graduate students, and postdoctoral fellows who come to School of Medicine scientists for mentoring.

Service Area: The service area will be the campus of the University of Nevada, Reno, which is located in Washoe County of northern Nevada. This is the area of focused services. Extension of services beyond the UNR
boundary will be promoted, but is predicted to be infrequent.

Services Provided: The goal of this award is to improve access to the latest technology for biomedical imaging, i.e., visualization and recording of the dynamic interactions among and/or within cells, including molecular-cellular interactions. This technology does not exist at our institution.

Equipment: Three Scanning Confocal Microscopes including: two-Olympus FV-300 and one Olympus FV-1000 microscopes. One Spectra-Physics sapphire: titanium laser.

Transmission: Not Applicable.