While at a school clinic at North Miami Beach Senior High, Anne Burdick, M.D., M.P.H., associate dean for telehealth and clinical outreach, examined a 5-year-old girl who was at Greynolds Park Elementary—more than a mile away. Even so, Burdick could see that the right foot of the student, who had a history of eczema, was dry and leathery from constant scratching.

“The images were very clear—diagnosis quality,” says Burdick, who did her assessment of the kindergartner through a high-definition video conferencing system via two wide-screen monitors, all the result of the new Telehealth Project for Students. “It was as good as seeing it in person.”

UM physicians such as Anne Burdick, M.D., M.P.H., care for youngsters around the county through the Miller School’s Telehealth Project for Students.

Telehealth Project for Students, a partnership between the UM Office of Community Health Affairs and the Dr. John T. Macdonald Foundation School Health Initiative, is ensuring continuity of care and reduced costs associated with absences and travel. Some 8,000 school children in six north Miami-Dade schools are able to almost instantly connect with Joycelyn J. Lawrence, M.D., assistant professor of family medicine and medical director of the school health initiative, for consultations when they visit their school clinics with a stomachache or sore throat, or for care of a chronic illness.

Thanks to a grant awarded by the Verizon Foundation to the Miller School’s telehealth program, Lawrence also is, when necessary, connecting the children to a dermatologist, pulmonologist, or other UHealth specialist, expanding access to high-quality health care for a population that is often underserved and uninsured.