L&D Associates Consulting Group
is
now represented in Albuquerque
and Rio Rancho, New Mexico,
Phoenix, Arizona, Columbus, Ohio
and Reno, Nevada. |
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L&D Associates Consulting Group has committed much of its research and grant writing efforts to improving information dissemination in rural, underserved communities throughout the US. These efforts have resulted in a series of successful grants and contracts to provide access to evidence-based health information to rural American Indian Tribes in the Southwest.
| Definition of rural or remote areas |
| The rural or remote areas are those which possess more than one of the following characteristics. |
- Shortage or absence of electricity and water supplies, access roads, regular transportation services and other public facilities.
- Shortage of experts and geographical constraints that make the construction of cabled telecommunications facilities costly
- Severe weather conditions, which makes it necessary to attach many conditions to the facilities to be built in the area. Low-level economic activities comprised mainly of farming, fisheries, and handicraft manufacturing
- Low per-capita income.
- Insufficient social infrastructure.
- Sparsely populated areas (depopulation).
- Insufficient telephone service, which results in a situation where many people depend on one telephone line. Therefore, each telephone line registers an unusually high rate of non-subscriber calls.
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Telemedicine, e-mail, distance learning, and access to the Internet have become problematic for many residents in rural communities. For these residents the "Digital Divide" is a real chasm between then and the wealth of information and data available to more urbanized locales. In fact, in a rural telecommunications conference held in 1996 one report stated that for unknown or unclear reasons it might take years for rural communities to get online locally.*
L&D Associates is now working with the National Network of Libraries of Medicine to provide access to evidence-based health literature through Treo 650 SmartPhones and Verizon Wireless Broadband National Access. This effort has improved the quality of care at the point of care for rural residents in New Mexico's Tribal communities. We have extended these efforts to rural clients and communities in Midwestern and eastern states.
We are improving our approach to rural telecommunications upgrades through grant, contract and cost sharing agreements between state, local and federal agencies to close the "Digital Divide" and make the Internet available to rural and remote residents in the US.
Skype for Business 
For more information on our rural telecommunications efforts contact us at information@landd.net
Rural America at the Crossroads Follow up Conference. Sponsored by TVA Rural Studies. Nashville, TN November 1996.*
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Services > Rural Telecommunications