The Pike County News Watchman
Sunday, September 14, 1997

MAGICnet goes on line

Brian Phillips
OU-COM director of information technology

The Medical and Government Internet Coalition Network (MAGICnet) went online this month in 11 southeastern Ohio counties including Pike County. The network is being created by the Ohio University College of Osteopathic Medicine (OU COM) and the Institute for Local Government Administration and Rural Development (ILGARD) through a $77,000 grant received last fall from the Appalachian Regional Commission. Taking a look at MAGICnet's site in the village of Coolville offices are Mike Finney (left), associate director of ILGARD, Russell Day, mayor of Coolville; Dan Neff, director of the Governor's Office of Appalachia; and Brian Phillips, OU-COM director of information technology. To date, MAGICnet site participants include 21 local government offices, 18 individual physician offices and two University Osteopathic Medical Center sites in Nelsonville Square and Coolville.

Another concrete block has been mortared into the foundation of Ohio’s rural technology infrastructure as a new computer network —called the Medical and Government Internet Coalition Network MAGIGnet)— went online on Sept. in 11 southeastern Ohio counties.

The network is being created by the Ohio University College of Osteopathic Medicine (OU-COM) and the Institute for Local Government Administration and Rural Development (ILGARD) through a $77,000 grant received last fall from the Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC). The Network is designed to increase access to computer-based technologies among local governments and health-care providers in Southeastern Ohio.

OU-COM and ILGARD have worked closely for the past year with the 11-county Mayors’ Partnership for Progress region to create the new network.

To date, 21 communities are participating in MAGICnet: Beaver and Waverly in Pike County; Zaleski in Vinton County; Rio Grande and Gallipolis in Gallia County; Pomeroy and Middleport in Meigs County; Coolville, Nelsonville and Albany in Athens County; Coalton, Wellston, Oak Hill and Jackson in Jackson County; Athalia in Lawrence County; New Matamoras, Belpre and Marietta in Washington County; New Boston and Portsmouth in Scioto County; and Logan in Hocking county. Eighteen physician offices are currently participating.

Full implementation will eventually create 25 governmental sites and physician/health-care provider participants. The computers in the physician and governmental offices in these communities will be linked to the World Wide Web via local commercial Internet Service Providers.

Through MAGICnet, ILGARD will work with communities to develop web pages to highlight their cities, encourage economic development and provide more information to their citizens. Physician offices will have full access to the Internet, the world wide computer network that includes thousands of medical, educational and clinical resources from major universities and hospitals; Electronic mail (e-mail) will establish an instantaneous communication network, providing physicians and governmental officials alike with a tool to create local and regional information networks.

"The new rural technology infrastructure being built in Ohio is leveling the playing field for rural communities, health-care providers and government officials—allowing them to compete with their urban counterparts," said Brian Phillips, OU-COM director of information technology

"This technology has turned OUCOM into a leader in distance learning and is helping move technology forward to improve the lives of southeastern Ohioans," Phillips continued. "We’re’ simply sharing our resources with a much larger audience."

According to Barbara Ross-Lee, D.O. dean of OU-COM, "This technology can start to address and minimize the challenges of professional and geographic isolation for rural physicians — a major barrier to recruiting and retaining primary care physicians in underserved areas. Videoconferencing and on-line rural networks can help provide the information and training support which is so important to today’s health-care providers."

"Economic development is a complex equation involving basic infrastructure, workforce education and training, entrepreneurial capital, local leadership and many other factors," said Jesse White, Jr., federal co-chairman of the Appalachian Regional Commission." But without healthy people, everything collapses — nothing else matters. The ARC is proud to be a partner in the effort to improve the quality and accessibility of health care for residents of rural Appalachian Ohio."

"MAGICnet will not only link the villages and small cities to state and global resources but it also builds the capacity of these small local governments to inform citizens and thereby better serve their communities," said Michael Finney, associate director of ILGARD. "We’re excited about working with the villages and cities to help them develop and maintain a presence on the World Wide Web."

"We’re thrilled to have the opportunity to use the information superhighway as a resource for problem solving and meeting village needs," commented Donald Wothe Jr., mayor of the Village of Rio Grande. "Our World Wide Web site will help connect us to the community, the region and beyond."

MAGICnet dovetails with OUCOM’s pioneering OhiONE (Osteopathic Network of Excellence) system —operational since January— which links OU-COM, its 14 CORE (Centers for Osteopathic Regional Education) teaching. hospitals throughout Ohio, and’ other institutions across the country. OhioONE’s data-based component — called COREnet — is an academic, multi-media computer network that delivers data-based medical and curricular information on-line via the Internet to students, interns and residents at CORE sites. OhiONE’s second component, a videoconferencing network, provides real-time, two-way video network communication between any number of university and CORE hospital sites

In addition to the creation of MAGICnet, OU-COM recently received a $326,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture for the development of a rural health information system, called Southeast Ohio Health Education Network (SOHEN). The grant is funding a complete video teleconferencing system and installation of distance learning centers in five Southwestern Ohio counties, which will allow health-care professionals to share information — although the network’s primary use is to provide continuing medical education for health-care workers across Southeastern Ohio.

The majority of new funding is geared toward improving access to information by allied health professionals and government officials in rural Southeastern Ohio. New partnerships between OU-COM, private foundations and the state and federal government have made the creation of this information infrastructure possible.