A rural Missouri girl who doesn’t speak English is the first patient to benefit from a new partnership involving the Missouri Telehealth Network at the University of Missouri. The grant-funded partnership connects patients and physicians with interpreters of 25 languages, from Spanish to Swahili.

The girl lives in a town of approximately 100 people in southern Missouri, where she had no access to the health care services required to diagnose and treat her chronic skin condition. She suffered for months from an unusual rash spreading across her arms until May 2009, when the power of telecommunications technology helped connect her with a pediatric dermatologist at MU’s medical school in Columbia and a Spanish interpreter in St. Louis.

A $232,780 grant from the Missouri Foundation for Health helped launch the new partnership, which bridges both distance and language barriers for patients in rural areas. Other partnership participants include the Language Access Metro Project (LAMP), an interpretive services agency in St. Louis; MU’s Missouri Telehealth Network, which has telecommunications sites in more than 40 counties; and MU’s Center for Health Policy, which focuses on improving health care access and health literacy.

“The Missouri Telehealth Network has more than 150 sites across Missouri, and thanks to this grant partnership, the network’s health care providers are now able to communicate with patients in 25 languages,” said Karen Edison, MD, who directs MU’s telehealth network and health policy center. “We believe this new service will enhance our patients’ ability to understand information and make decisions about their care, ultimately resulting in better health outcomes.”

The rural Missouri girl used a telehealth site near her home to communicate with Jon Dyer, MD, a pediatric dermatologist at the MU School of Medicine, and a LAMP interpreter in St. Louis. Dyer examined live images of coin-shaped lesions on the girl’s skin, diagnosed her with nummular eczema, and prescribed medication during the three-way telehealth session.

“The new partnership will improve health care quality and accessibility for patients across Missouri,” Dyer said. “It also will save Missourians time, money and even the pollution associated with travel for health care services.”