Dr. Michael Ohl of the Department of Veterans Affairs' (VA) Iowa City VA Health Care System is creating a model titled Telehealth Collaborative Care to improve the quality of care for Veterans who live far from specialty clinics. Telehealth Collaborative Care uses videoconferencing to connect rural veterans with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) with VA specialists. Approximately 18 percent of the 26,000 veterans under VA care for HIV live in rural areas and have limited access to high-quality, HIV specialty clinics. Ohl's study explores rural veterans' interest in using video telehealth at close-by, VA community-based outpatient clinics (CBOCs) to maintain their ongoing care. For more information, visit the VA HIV/AIDS webpage. A summary of Ohl's study is available online.
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