In Arizona, Sara Gibson, MD, a psychiatrist with Northern Arizona Regional Behavioral Health Authority in Flagstaff, was the first to practice psychiatry via telemedicine.
It was November 1996, and Gibson had just returned to work after being on maternity leave. “I was covering Apache County, on the New Mexico border, where there are only two towns, St. Johns and Springerville,” she recalls.
“Travel is always an issue – and it was even more so after the birth of my son. My husband is a physician who’s on call a lot. And so NARBHA approached me and said, ‘This is totally new, would you be willing to pilot this?’”
The entire state of Arizona is a federally designated "mental health professionals shortage area." Gibson saw telemedicine as a way to bridge the gap between her and many of her patients.
It was November 1996, and Gibson had just returned to work after being on maternity leave. “I was covering Apache County, on the New Mexico border, where there are only two towns, St. Johns and Springerville,” she recalls.
“Travel is always an issue – and it was even more so after the birth of my son. My husband is a physician who’s on call a lot. And so NARBHA approached me and said, ‘This is totally new, would you be willing to pilot this?’”
The entire state of Arizona is a federally designated "mental health professionals shortage area." Gibson saw telemedicine as a way to bridge the gap between her and many of her patients.
To read more, click here.
