The Arizona Telemedicine Program is a large, multidisciplinary, university-based program that provide The University of Arizona recruited Dr. Ronald S.
In 1995, Arizona State Representative Robert “Bob” Burns (now Senator Burns) worked with legislative staffer John Lee to develop the Arizona Telemedicine Program model (ATP). Weinstein, an international expert on telemedicine, to be director of a new Arizona state-wide program. In 1996, the Arizona Telemedicine Program was born. Since then, the program has succeeded in creating partnerships among a wide variety of not-for-profit and profit healthcare organizations, and has created new interagency relationships within the state government. Functioning as a "virtual corporation," the Arizona Telemedicine Program is creating new paradigms for healthcare delivery over the information superhighway. Currently the Arizona Telemedicine Program is providing medical services via both real-time and store-and-forward technologies in twenty communities throughout Arizona. The program is recognized as one of the premier programs at the University of Arizona College of Medicine, and has received numerous awards at the national level for its research and innovations. Guidelines for Social Media Comments: http://uanow.org/participate
02/25/2026
Representing Arizona Telemedicine Program as board member on Arizona Digital Inclusion Network board meeting. Our participation not only contributes telemedicine and technology-enabled education expertise, but also strengthens the University of Arizona’s visibility, partnerships, and leadership role in advancing digital equity initiatives across the state.
Digital Inclusion Network (ADIN)
02/20/2026
Telehealth is leveling up for 2026: Medicare telehealth flexibilities are extended through 2027, Hospital‑at‑Home continues through 2030, and new shorter RTM/RPM codes make virtual rehab faster, smarter, and more accessible—clear proof that virtual care isn’t temporary anymore, it’s the new standard. https://telemedicine.arizona.edu/blog/summary-2026-telehealth-rtm-policy-updates
Send a message to learn more
02/18/2026
Excited to exhibit at the 2026 Arizona Rural & Public Health Policy Forum in Phoenix! Supporting rural and public health through telehealth innovation.
02/17/2026
Telemedicine is rapidly becoming the new heartbeat of cardiovascular care, breaking down barriers to access through virtual visits, continuous monitoring, and wearable technology—especially for patients in rural or underserved communities. The Arizona Telemedicine Program's HRSA funded Southwest Telehealth Resource Center highlights how these tools empower individuals with real‑time insights while the American Heart Association strengthens this shift through telehealth certification, policy advocacy, and clinician training to ensure virtual care remains accessible, effective, and human‑centered. If your organization hasn’t explored how telehealth can elevate heart care, now is the perfect time—dive into the full article and consider how you can champion digital heart health in your community. https://southwesttrc.org/blog/2026/loving-your-heart-digital-age-why-telemedicine-new-beat-heart-health
02/12/2026
🚀 Excited to share an upcoming webinar you won’t want to miss!
Join the Arizona Telemedicine Program and the Southwest Telehealth Resource Center for a cutting‑edge session exploring the future of bio‑integrated wearables and implantable technologies—and how they’re transforming continuous health monitoring.
🗓 Wednesday, February 18, 2026
⏰ 12:00 PM Arizona Time (MST)
🎓 Free | 1.0 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit™
This one‑hour CME webinar will dive into next‑generation wearable and implantable systems designed for 24/7, high‑fidelity physiological monitoring and therapeutic intervention. Learn how innovations in soft materials, wireless energy transfer, and photonic interfaces are redefining what continuous diagnostics can look like.
🔍 What You’ll Learn:
Breakthroughs in bio‑integrated wearable and implantable devices for clinically meaningful, continuous monitoring
How wireless energy, soft materials, and photonics extend system longevity and performance
How unified wearable + implantable biosymbiotic systems can transform organ and musculoskeletal health insights
🎙 Presenter:
Philipp Gutruf, PhD
Associate Professor, Biomedical Engineering, University of Arizona
🔗 Register here: https://telemedicine.arizona.edu/
For questions, contact Melanie Esher, MAdm at mesher@arizona.edu.
This session is supported by the Health Resources and Services Administration, Office for the Advancement of Telehealth.
University of Arizona College of Medicine - Tucson
University of Arizona Health Sciences
01/22/2026
Upcoming Webinar: Developing a Telemedicine Program
📅 January 27, 2026
⏰ 9:15 AM – 12:30 PM (AZ Time)
🎓 3 Hours CME credit available for this session
Join us for a comprehensive webinar designed to help healthcare leaders, clinicians, and administrators build and sustain effective telemedicine programs. This session brings together experts in law, policy, cybersecurity, clinical standards, AI, and reimbursement to share practical insights and real-world guidance.
Whether you’re launching a new telemedicine initiative or refining an existing one, this webinar offers valuable insights you can apply right away.
University of Arizona College of Medicine - Tucson
University of Arizona Health Sciences
01/09/2026
📢 Please join us for the Arizona Telemedicine Council!
🗓 January 21 | 11:00 AM–1:00 PM MST
💡 Topics include:
• AI in healthcare
• Current State of Banner Telehealth
• AI applications for colorectal cancer
• Teleophthalmology
• Social Work Compact & more
Join healthcare leaders and innovators as we explore telehealth and digital health care.
University of Arizona College of Medicine - Tucson
University of Arizona Health Sciences
Banner Health
12/09/2025
Webinar: Telenephrology for Rural Hospitals—Expanding Access, Continuity, and Outcomes
Rural hospitals often lack nephrology coverage or dialysis capabilities, forcing patients with end‑stage renal disease (ESRD) and other kidney conditions to travel elsewhere for care. Telenephrology changes that by providing 24/7 access to nephrologists and supporting local staff to deliver dialysis when needed.
Join us to learn how telenephrology programs:
Improve access to specialty kidney care in rural settings
Maintain continuity for patients close to home
Enhance clinical outcomes
Free 1-hour CME through the University of Arizona College of Medicine – Tucson
University of Arizona College of Medicine - Tucson
University of Arizona Health Sciences
11/19/2025
🩺Telemedicine for Incarcerated Patients
In recognition of HIV Awareness Month, the Arizona Telemedicine Program and Southwest Telehealth Resource Center invite you to an insightful session:
Inside Access: Telemedicine for Incarcerated Patients
📅 Wednesday, December 10, 2025
🕛 12:00 PM Arizona Time (11:00 AM PST | 12:00 PM MST | 1:00 PM CST | 2:00 PM EST)
✅ Free CME Credit Provided by The University of Arizona College of Medicine – Tucson
This webinar will explore:
✔ How telemedicine strengthens HIV care delivery and outcomes in correctional systems
✔ Clinical, operational, and security advantages over traditional models
✔ Strategies to overcome implementation challenges in prison healthcare
✔ Best practices for tele-triage and interprofessional collaboration
Presenters:
Stephen Klotz, MD – Professor & Medical Director, Arizona Telemedicine Program
Larry York, PharmD, BCIDP, BCPS, AAHIVP – Clinical Pharmacist, Infectious Diseases and HIV/AIDS
University of Arizona College of Medicine - Tucson
University of Arizona Health Sciences
11/17/2025
Telerehabilitation
The Arizona Telemedicine Program and Southwest Telehealth Resource Center invite you to a free CME webinar.
📅 Wednesday, December 3, 2025
🕛 12:00 PM MST | 11:00 AM PST | 1:00 PM CST | 2:00 PM EST
Join us to learn how virtual rehab programs are transforming recovery for a variety of patients, the latest research on clinical outcomes and patient engagement, and how artificial intelligence is being used to personalize treatment, track progress and enhance delivery of care.
Session Highlights:
Telerehabilitation models for cancer care
Clinical impact in degenerative disease and COPD
Emerging AI applications that enhance patient outcomes
Speakers:
Aref Smiley, PhD – Associate Professor
Patricia Rocco, PT, MS – Physical Therapist
Joseph Finkelstein, MD, PhD – Director
Arizona Telemedicine Program, College of Medicine – Tucson
University of Arizona College of Medicine - Tucson
University of Arizona Health Sciences
11/17/2025
Successfully Leading Change: Telehealth – Part 3
with Jan Ground, PT, MBA
📅 November 20, 2025
🕐 12:00 PM MST | 11:00 AM PST | 1:00 PM CST | 2:00 PM EST
Change is hard for everyone—especially when it means asking clinicians to provide care differently. This free webinar will help you build practical skills to lead change effectively in telehealth environments.
📣 Exciting News from the Arizona Telemedicine Program’s HRSA funded Southwest Telehealth Resource Center!
📍We’re thrilled to announce that the Find Telehealth Map has expanded to include Colorado and New Mexico!
📍Now you can easily locate telehealth and in-person healthcare service providers across the Southwest. Explore the map today:
👉 https://findtelehealth.nrtrc.org
University of Arizona College of Medicine - Tucson
University of Arizona Health Sciences
Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA)
Northwest Regional Telehealth Resource Center
National Consortium of Telehealth Resource Centers
Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Arizona Telemedicine Program posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.
In 1995, Arizona State Representative Robert “Bob” Burns (now Senator Burns) worked with legislative staffer John Lee to develop the Arizona Telemedicine Program model (ATP). Telemedicine is the use of telecommunications technology to provide training for healthcare providers and specialist consults to providers and patients who are located in areas that do not have that level of service available. The University of Arizona College of Medicine was directed to establish a pilot telemedicine program with eight sites to serve the Arizona prison system and rural underserved communities. The U of A recruited Dr. Ronald S. Weinstein, an international expert on telemedicine, to be director of the new Arizona state-wide program.
Senator Burns and Dr. Weinstein have partnered in developing and managing the ATP since its inception.
The Arizona Telemedicine Program is a large, multidisciplinary, university-based program that provides telemedicine services, distance learning, informatics training, and telemedicine technology assessment capabilities to communities throughout Arizona, the sixth largest state in the United States, in square miles. The program has succeeded in creating partnerships among a wide variety of not-for-profit and profit healthcare organizations, and has created new interagency relationships within the state government. Functioning as a "virtual corporation," the Arizona Telemedicine Program is creating new paradigms for healthcare delivery over the information superhighway. The program is recognized as one of the premier programs at the University of Arizona College of Medicine, and has received numerous awards at the national level for its research and innovations.
A major contributing factor to the success of the Arizona Telemedicine Program is its strong commitment to research, and its track record in technology transfer. In 1973, the Department of Radiology at the College of Medicine formed a Digital Imaging Group which has been exceptionally productive over the years, and remains a recognized program in the field. The research group includes physicians as well as Ph.D.s in computer sciences and electrical engineering, cognitive psychology, and optical sciences. In 1990, Dr. Ronald S. Weinstein, a pioneer in the field of robotic telemedicine, was recruited to the University of Arizona and initiated collaboration with the radiology team.
Dr. Weinstein has had a career-long interest in telemedicine. He trained at the Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard at the time that the first multi-service telemedicine program was established between Logan Airport and the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. In 1986, Dr. Weinstein invented robotic telepathology for which he holds US Patents. His Telepathology Research Laboratory at Rush Medical College, in Chicago, where he was Department Head for 15 years prior to coming to Arizona, carried out pioneering research on the diagnostic accuracy of telepathology, developed the first robotic telemedicine application, and designed the first commercial robotic telepathology system. In 1992, Dr. Weinstein established the Arizona International Telemedicine Network which provided telepathology consultations in Mexico and China. His work was widely acknowledged and, in 1993, Dr. Weinstein was invited to give the opening lecture at the First International Conference on Clinical Applications of Telemedicine, in Tromso, Norway. The Dean of the Arizona College of Medicine, Dr. James E. Dalen, gave a lecture on “Rural Healthcare” at the same meeting. Thus, there was significant interest in telemedicine in Arizona prior to the establishment of the Arizona Telemedicine Program.
In 1996, the Legislature of the State of Arizona funded the Arizona Telemedicine Program and mandated that it provide telemedicine services to a broad range of healthcare service users including geographically isolated communities, Indian tribes, and Department of Corrections rural prisons. Leveraging the state startup funds, the Arizona Telemedicine Program succeeded in obtaining additional funding and support from many healthcare systems, state agencies, federal grant programs, and third party payors.
Currently the Arizona Telemedicine Program is providing medical services via both real-time and store-and-forward technologies in twenty communities. This year, 500 hours of continuing medical education and continuing education will be delivered to thirty-four communities using bi-direction video conferencing. The Arizona Telemedicine Program has created two additional statewide programs, Project Nightingale and e-Healthcare Arizona. Project Nightingale, created by Dr. Weinstein, is a unique, dedicated broadband healthcare infrastructure which functions as a telecommunications collaborative providing access to T-1/ATM telecommunications on a private network throughout the state on a cost-sharing basis. e-Healthcare Arizona provides state agencies with a vehicle for collaborating on various programs in disease prevention, public education, correctional telemedicine and, more recently, children's healthcare and home health nursing. In addition, the Arizona Telemedicine Program has recently instituted innovative programs in home health care for patients with artificial hearts awaiting transplantation, patients requiring ostomy home-nursing services, and children in need of occupational and physical therapy. Telenursing services are being implemented in Phoenix schools.
Perhaps the greatest accomplishment of the Arizona Telemedicine Program has been to create strong ties between the University of Arizona College of Medicine, various healthcare providers, and the state legislature. Bridges built between state agencies, local governments and legislative bodies are fostering a high level of awareness of the importance of telemedicine and e-health to achieving the state's healthcare goals. The program also serves as a platform upon which the state's only College of Medicine can demonstrate its value to exceptionally broad constituencies throughout Arizona and the nation as a clinical research center, a tertiary care facility, and as an educational institution.
