Ohio Osteopathic Network of Excellence: establishing a statewide telehealth consortium.

Phillips and Duffrin • Medical education In 1994, Ohio University College of Osteopathic Medicine (OU-COM) and osteopathic medical educators forged a new partnership that changed the fundamental delivery of osteopathic undergraduate and graduate education across Ohio. This partnership resulted in the establishment of the Centers for Osteopathic Regional Education (CORE) system, which began operation in July 1995. The CORE design originally supported five regions throughout Ohio, drawing on the strengths of medical educators from OU-COM, 13 osteopathic training hospitals in Ohio, and three affiliated osteopathic medical schools. As one of the foundations to this new system, the Ohio osteopathic medical education community wanted to develop a system of education that would establish a continuum of education that integrated advanced communications technologies to provide continuity of programs in all hospitals. The concept of establishing a “virtual community” became paramount in reducing the barriers of time and geographic location previously experienced in the delivery of medical education. This effort involved multiple training sites and hundreds of faculty, support staff, and students in the CORE system. On January 1, 1996, the Ohio Osteopathic Network of Excellence (OhiONE) began operations at all 13 CORE hospitals, with the Ohio University College of Osteopathic Medicine as the primary hub site. The OhiONE distance-learning network has two distinct yet complementary components: (1) the OhiONE videoconferencing network provides real-time synchronous programming, and (2) an asynchronous Internet-based delivery system called COREnet. The specific challenges of creating a telehealth system were development and implementation of a statewide technology-enhanced education network, use of distance learning and video conferencing, and issues in developing and maintaining a quality distance learning system.