ideo communication applications, including specialty consultations, urgent care consults for trauma, continuing medical education for providers, healthcare education for the general public, staff training, administrative meetings, family consultations, and technical diagnostics for training and troubleshooting. UTCM also uses the telehealth model to aid an outreach center for applying technologies to meet community outreach health care needs, such as E-health, Minority Recruitment, Campus Faculty and Student Volunteer Efforts, and Health Disparities. The UTHSC identified five priorities for improving the region's healthcare system: Reduce delays in patient care Improve patient safety Case Profiles Improve prescription medication management Provide resources to financially troubled rural hospitals Improve continuing medical education support to rural providers "The project partners led by the UTHSC decided upon a regional interactive video conference system utilizing dedicated T1 lines," said Dr. Karen Fox, the outreach center's Executive Director and Assistant Dean for Communication, who also serves as Assistant Dean for the College of Medicine. Both efficiency and patient satisfaction benefit with Telehealth. The telehealth program efficiency has outpaced traditional medical clinics by 48% to 27%. These practices include an increase in efficiency across specialty fields such as dermatology, psychiatry, ENT pediatrics and adult, and neurology. Patient wait times are less than five minutes for more than 70% of patients using telehealth video communication, and 47% of patients agree that the quality of service of a video conference gives them more clinical attention than a regular office visit. For those looking to start similar services, the UTHSC Outreach Center suggests: Develop healthcare services in response to a true, significant, and ongoing community need. Collaborate with project partners such as local and state health departments, local health education centers, regional patient advocacy groups, statewide