Kathy Schwarting, Executive Director of Palmetto Care Connections and Co-Chair of the South Carolina Telehealth Alliance, offers the welcome for the first Telehealth Regional Meeting which was held at McLeod Health on November 17.

McLeod Health hosted the first Telehealth Regional Meeting on Tuesday, October 17, in the McLeod Medical Plaza Conference Center. Sponsors of the meeting included Palmetto Care Connections, McLeod Health and the South Carolina Telehealth Alliance.

Kathy Schwarting, Executive Director of Palmetto Care Connections and Co-Chair of the South Carolina Telehealth Alliance, offered the welcome and an overview of the Telehealth Strategic Plan.

Presentations during the conference included Telehealth Reimbursement, Telehealth 101 and a Telehealth demonstration. Latoya Thomas, the State Policy Resource Center Director for the American Telemedicine Association, also presented during the lunch portion of the event.

After lunch, there was an overview of Telehealth in the Pee Dee Region featuring Gail Weaver, Director of Pee Dee AHEC, and Gaye Douglas with Hope Health, who presented on Telehealth with Special Populations. They were followed by Dr. Chadley Runyan who discussed Telehealth Post-Concussion Care Follow-Up Visits and Dr. Julie Kanter who addressed Telehealth and Sickle Cell.

The conference concluded with a Telehealth Roundtable led by Moderator Sam Head with the South Carolina Department of Health and Human Services. Representatives serving on the panel included: Dr. James McElligott, Co-Chair for the South Carolina Telehealth Alliance and Medical Director of the Center for Telehealth at the Medical University of South Carolina; Kathy Schwarting; Matt Reich, Associate Vice President of Telehealth Services and Network Operations for McLeod Health; and Dr. Bryon Frost, an Emergency Medicine Physician and Medical Director of Information Technology for McLeod Health.