CA Constructs Massive Network to Get Health Care to Needy

California is building the largest tele-medicine network in the United States, which intends to give every person in the state access to the very best healthcare available.

The California Tele-health Network was launched at the UC Davis Medical Center. It will use live audio and video to link patients in the remotest areas of the state to some of the leading medical professionals in California. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger says the future of medicine is here. Click to Listen

"With this technology you should be able to get help anywhere at any given time, especially in an emergency, when lives are hanging in the balance," said Schwarzenegger.

Margaret Laws of the California Healthcare Foundation says accessibility is the name of the game in this age of healthcare reform.

"People can wait for up to a year for a specialty consult in many of our underserved urban areas," said Laws.

Within three years, more than 800 sites will be connected to the secure, $30 million, broadband California Tele-health Network.