WASHINGTON — U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue on Wednesday announced the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is investing $72 million in grants to help rural residents gain access to health care and educational opportunities.

UPMC Kane will received $448,800.

This Rural Development investment will be used to provide synchronous specialty and emergency medical care services to rural end-user sites through the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) Hamot-Erie and UPMC Kane hubs.

The project will deploy equipment to provide on-site live-feed medical services facilitating real time communication among the project sites, using telehealth carts and peripherals that are able to provide information regarding a patient’s condition to an emergency or specialty care physician at the hub and hub/enduser site. The goal is to provide greater access to medical care while decreasing the overall costs of that care. The project will benefit a population of 109,726 in four Pennsylvania counties. The end-user site located in the city of Bradford is within an Opportunity Zone.

“Increasing access to telemedicine and distance learning is critical to building healthier and more resilient rural communities,” said Perdue. “Paired with our monumental effort to expand high-speed broadband access in rural America, these investments will help rural health care centers and education institutions reach more rural residents with essential services and opportunities. Under the leadership of President Trump, USDA is committed to being a strong partner to rural communities because when rural America thrives, all of America thrives.”