The """"""""Rural Medical Connections"""""""" partners project will provide Internet access for rural primary care providers who serve as Rural Medicine faculty for both the University of New England College of Osteopathic Medicine and the Maine Statewide AHEC System. As a result of this project clinical students and their preceptors will have dedicated Internet connection currently not available. The specific purposes of the project are: 1) Assure access of 48 Rural Medicine faculty and their 125 students to the University of New England medical library data bases and services; 2) Enable rural practitioners to use the Internet more efficiently, and effectively access web-based information for care management, and 3) Increase the ability of rural practitioners to participate in College of Osteopathic Medicine collegial activities, such as CME and clinical research projects. Although the University has recently made remote access to library resources available to the Rural Medicine faculty, they and their students lack the necessary Internet access. During the first six-months of the project a Maine-based statewide ISP network will install and provide unlimited Internet access through a local toll free dial up number to an """"""""education dedicated"""""""" telephone line at each Rural Medicine faculty site. Wireless technology will be installed such that it will be compatible with the medical students? University-configured laptops to maximize accessibility. The partners will also develop and implement a multi-staged training plan to assist Rural Medicine faculty in developing competence in accessing medical library data bases and other web-based information resources. Peer trainers and AHEC Center staff will be trained to provide one-on-one support in the field. During the grant period regional training workshops will be conducted for Rural Medicine faculty. Two levels of faculty training will be provided: a four- hour hands-on library data base training session conducted by the medical library staff, and a three-hour Clinical Case Informatics CME conducted by the College of Osteopathic Medicine Director of Faculty Development. Project assessment will focus on timeliness and end user satisfaction of the connectivity installation, and on the process and outcome of the faculty training program. In both cases the formative process assessment will be used to continually improve the project activities.
