• Katie W Russell, Jeffrey R Saffle, Louanna Theurer, and Amalia L Cochran.
• Department of Surgery, University of Utah, 30 North 1900 East, SOM 3B110, Salt Lake City, UT 84132, USA.
• Am. J. Surg. 2015 Dec 1; 210 (6): 1037-42; discussion 1042-4.

BackgroundMany Americans have limited access to specialty burn care, and telemedicine has been proposed as a means to address this disparity. However, many telemedicine programs have been founded on grant support and then fail once the grant support expires. Our objective was to demonstrate that a burn telemedicine program can be financially viable.MethodsThis retrospective review from 2005 to 2014 evaluated burn telemedicine visits and financial reimbursement during and after a Technology Opportunities Program grant to a regional burn center.ResultsIn 2005, we had 12 telemedicine visits, which increased to 458 in 2014. In terms of how this compares to in-person clinic visits, we saw a consistent increase in telemedicine visits as a percentage of total clinic visits from .26% in 2005 to 14% in 2014. Median telemedicine reimbursement has been equivalent to in-person visits.ConclusionsSpecialty telemedicine programs can successfully transition from grant-funded enterprises to self-sustaining. The availability of telemedicine services allows access to specialty expertise in a large and sparsely populated region without imposing an undue financial burden.Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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