Mono County Supervisor brings Telemedicine forward

A heart attack on Oct. 27 made Mono County Supervisor Hap Hazard’s presentation on Telemedicine this week all the more relevant.

Hazard experienced a minor heart attack two weeks ago and was flown to Reno where he received medical attention.

He was back behind the dais on Tuesday and told The Sheet that he didn’t feel any differently than he had before the heart attack.

“There’s nothing I can do about it right now, so I’m here,” he said.

At the end of the day he presented a PowerPoint presentation on Telemedicine (he had placed it on the agenda prior to his heart attack), which, he stated is going to become much more feasible with the installation of Digital 395.

“Digital 395 can open doors for telemedicine, among other things,” Hazard said. “We have the opportunity to move forward but we are really going to have to push it. The supervisors will need to be a driving force.”

According to Hazard’s presentation, Telemedicine is interactive healthcare over distance using technology.

“Telemedicine brings the expertise and experience of a Medical Team to the point of care and allows that expertise to be customized to that patient,” he stated.

So does he think Telemedicine would have helped him during his recent emergency situation?

“It would provided we’d had more groundwork done,” Hazard said on Thursday. He added that it most likely would come in handier in the aftermath of his follow-up care, were it available.