Charity Medical submits NTIA Medical State Strategic Plan

Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — Charity Wound Care and Geriatric Medical Center, a privately owned Medicare licensed home health care service, has submitted a community based Health Care Strategic State Plan for funding through the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) under the auspices of the U.S. Commerce Department.

In American Samoa local resident Ethan Lake is tasked to manage the federal broadband grants for the territory and coordinate with the local broadband stakeholders and partners in America, as well as with village and community leaders. He assumed this federal position in June 2022.

In a press release issued by Charity, corporate officer Tapumanaia Galu Satele said the proposal incorporates LTE broadband technology to reach and serve patients in their homes. “Traditional concepts of telemedicine, a medical professional video conferencing with a patient, have been outstripped by modern technology.”

Satele added that modern use of cloud based portable laboratories, diagnostic equipment, health screening tools and chatbotGPT Artificial Intelligence are the modern adaptations of broadband technology and medical patient care.

Improved community health care depends on home based intervention, preventive care, primary care, patient education, good diet, disability mobility and, in acute cases, twenty four hour real time mobile monitoring. By integrating GPS mapping technology, wireless logistic capacity and data integration we have the ability to solve the root causes of our local health crisis,” he said.

The Charity proposal of $9.25 million dollars is based on a three-year pilot project that expects to become financially self-sustainable through Medicare billing revenues and will be subject to local taxes at the end of the project timetable.

The NTIA State Strategy Plan budget for American Samoa is $37.5 million dollars, according to Charity.