Clinic goes high-tech, letting patients tell doctors what's ailing them via the Internet

AMARILLO - The health clinic in Turkey looks far from modern. It sits on a dirt road in an old school building and shares a wing with the justice of the peace.

But inside the clinic sits multi-million-dollar equipment that connects these rural residents to a Plainview doctor via the Internet and a video camera.

With other programs in Hart, Earth and Quitaque, Dr. Sidney Ontai's services provide a way for rural Panhandle residents to conveniently see a doctor rather than driving as far as 45 miles.

The telemedicine program is like seeing a doctor in person - except 150 miles separate the patient and physician.

"I don't understand why more doctors aren't using it," said Don Turner, a trained emergency medical technician who helps staff the clinic.

Clinicians enter a patient's vital signs, history, lab results, even an audio recording of a person's heart and lungs, into a computer. Workers in Turkey can even scan X-rays and other pictures.

Ontai, who practices family medicine in Plainview, reviews the information, talks to the patient and treats them from miles away.

He said if he ever needs to physically examine a patient, he tells them to come see him. If the patient is in dire emergency, he tells the EMT to get the patient in an ambulance and go to the emergency room.

"Telemedicine technology is no different than a scalpel or a stethoscope or any other tool," Ontai said. "Its safety and efficacy depends on the skill of the physician using it."

The Turkey telemedicine programs sees an average of eight people a month.

"It's not a full-time job because there's not a lot of people in Turkey," Turner said.

Turkey also is home to the state's first telepharmacy program, a separate but similar program run by Texas Tech Health Sciences Center.

It's a full pharmacy staffed without a pharmacist and started in November 2002.

The same workers at the Turkey clinic can fill any prescription.

Pharmacists at Texas Tech in Lubbock verify through a bar-code system that Turkey workers are dispensing the correct pills to patients. A pharmacist in Lubbock talks to the patient over the phone about safety and proper instructions.

Lawmakers changed state law in September 2001 to allow telepharmacies. Turkey was an immediate candidate for telepharmacy because it had health care with its telemedicine but no pharmacy.

"To my knowledge, there's probably been less than 10 telepharmacies set up in Texas," said Don McBeth, director of special projects at TTHSC.

Rush Pierce, interim regional dean of the Texas Tech School of Medicine in Amarillo, said the university should work harder to have more telemedicine programs in Panhandle cities. Most programs are in the South Plains, closer to Lubbock.

Texas Tech did 636 telepharmacy and telemedicine rural consultations in 2006.

Ontai said money is the main reason why telemedicine hasn't spread in popularity.

"Most doctors do things that make them money," Ontai said. "Telemedicine doesn't make money, so it is usually only done with grant support."

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