Children with speech disorders across the rural Palouse might not have immediate access to proper therapy services, but that’s about to change thanks to a federal grant and the advent of video technology.

During a presentation yesterday, Pullman Regional Hospital announced the soon-to-be reality of telespeech therapy paid for by a $280,468 grant from the Rural Development Program for Distance Learning and Telemedicine, a program within the United States Department of Agriculture. Telemedicine, as it’s called, eliminates the need for speech pathologists and patients to travel.

“Every minute (speech pathologists) spend in a car is a minute that they’re not spending working with a child, so we have to stop that,” said Brian Kasbar, a co-founder of the Spokane-based company GemIIni Systems.

Kasbar said video communication technologies in the medical field have proven successful recently. GemIIni teamed up with Pullman Regional Hospital and the Pullman School District to perform a pilot program using telespeech software.

“Before, you would have to put a flashcard in front of a child and say, ‘What is this?’” he said. “Now, instead of doing that on the table, you’ve got the screen.”

It’s traditional therapy gone virtual, he said.

“The next step we’re taking is to use technology whereas the therapist speaks, they can use the videos, and they can do so through a virtual therapy session by using the screen as the table,” he said.

Ambyr Henderson, a speech-language pathologist at Pullman Regional Hospital, has been a part of the pilot program that works with GemIIni to test the new technology on local students. She said while the program works well, it’s important that the roadblocks be addressed as soon as possible.

“Being able to work with their IT (information technology) people and our IT people, to make sure everything is approved and we can get the system up and going, that was the biggest one,” Henderson said.

She was optimistic overall about the impact of teletherapy on children.

“The therapists have been amazing working with the Pullman School District,” she said. “The collaboration has been wonderful.”

Pullman Regional Hospital CEO Scott Adams said children in Pullman and neighboring cities don’t always receive appropriate durations of needed medical care.

“Kids may only qualify in a school setting for a half an hour of therapy or the therapist who has to travel from great distances may only be able to give them a half an hour,” Adams said.

As a result of the hospital’s collaboration with GemIIni Systems, Adams foresaw a more positive trend in the services available to children around the region.

“Through their software, which is cloud-based and accessible over the internet, kids can go home and spend another two, three or four hours still practicing, still rehearsing the same speech therapy trainings that their therapist may have prescribed for them,” he said.

Adams said the Telespeech Therapy for Children and Schools project aims to provide health services that children require, aligning with the nation’s evolution of health care.

“It really touches on all of the parts of what health care is especially trying to achieve, and that is better quality, less cost and more accessible,” he said.

The implications of the grant coincide with the hospital’s Community Health 2020 and Healthcare Innovation initiatives.