ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. --

In rural areas, where accessing health care is often a challenge, the doctors and patients of the future will increasingly be linked by virtual interstates.

That's the vision of Dr. Dale Alverson, who predicts clinics, hospitals and private doctors' offices will routinely be hooked into a computerized network for telemedicine, allowing specialists to review records of faraway patients, analyze tests remotely and consult doctors elsewhere.

"I believe, in the end, telehealth will be part of doing business in the health field, just like we use the telephone," said Alverson, medical director of the Center for Telehealth at the University of New Mexico's Health Sciences Center. "It won't be looked at as something unique or special; it's just what we do. ... Just as for many of us now it's second nature to use the Internet and the Web for health information."

A $15.5 million grant from the Federal Communications Commission to the Center for Telehealth and Cybermedicine Research at the Health Sciences Center will be used to design, build, operate and evaluate a Southwest Telehealth Access Grid, a broadband network largely serving rural areas that typically lack such technology.

The grant to increase the bandwidth will be a boon to New Mexico, said Gary Bauerschmidt, UNM's director for information technology services and co-chairman of the network design and modeling committee.

"There's a lot of sites that have no connectivity or very poor connectivity," he said. "Telehealth is such an advantage here. Doctors just can't travel around our state, and when you get to the reservations, it's even more challenging."

The grid of telehealth networks will support rural systems and connections to more than 500 sites, primarily in New Mexico and Arizona, along with several Indian Health Service sites in Colorado, California, Nevada, Texas and Utah.

"What this really means is a network of networks, a virtual electronic highway that allows you as a patient to access health care at a distance," Alverson said.

Eventually, telemedicine could make virtual house calls, he said. With an aging population and a related increase in chronic disease, "the shift is more to getting the care to the patient where they live," Alverson said.

Telemedicine isn't new. The Health Sciences Center has had programs for a dozen years and already connects to nearly 100 sites in 50 communities. It offers telemedicine services in behavioral health, substance abuse and developmental disabilities, among others.