ARLINGTON, TX – Texas Health Resources here in Arlington will use a $1 million grant from the AT&T Foundation for information technology initiatives within the North Texas community.

“Much of the population served by THR does not have access to traditional healthcare,” said Russell Poland, MD, the newly appointed president of The Research and Education Institute, one of THR’s research arms.

Poland and his team are in the initial research stages, focusing on clinical services and population-based studies. They hope to develop an in-home wireless monitoring system to assist patients with chronic diseases. This summer, the institute will host a forum to discuss possibilities for a monitoring technology. TREI will sponsor a two-day Health and Technology Forum this November in Dallas.

The grant will also support a wireless network for the 13-hospital network’s IT devices, including an EMR, provided by Epic Systems, which will be installed over the next year.

Texas state legislators involved with healthcare have recognized the value of the grant for the Texas community.

“This grant represents an investment in our overall medical infrastructure, and it comes at a time when we are looking to IT for potential solutions to many of our healthcare challenges,” said Sen. Jane Nelson, (R-Lewisville), who heads the Texas Senate Committee on Health & Human Services.

“We look for new applications with technology that really involve the patient,” said Laura Sanford, president of the AT&T Foundation.

The grant came from the AT&T Foundation’s Health and Human Services portfolio and will be paid  over five years.