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YUMA — Yuma Regional Medical Center has been "beaming up" doctors from around the state for the past few years.

For patients who can't afford to visit specialists outside the area, the medical center's partnership with the Arizona Telemedicine Program connects patients to specialists through new technology.

The Arizona Telemedicine Program at YRMC got a positive review recently from Dr. Ronald Weinstein, director of the program at the University of Arizona Health Sciences Center.

"Telemedicine is the practice of medicine at a distance using video imaging and telecommunications technologies," Weinstein said in an e-mail. "The Arizona Telemedicine Program is a large, statewide program. It provides the telecommunications infrastructure for telemedicine, telemedicine training and many telemedicine services over its network."

The telemedicine program came to Yuma Regional as part of the Arizona Department of Health Services Children's Rehabilitation Services program. The center's Neonatal Intensive Care Unit is linked to University Medical Center in Tucson for emergency consultations on infants with serious, often life-threatening conditions.

It also provides services for disabled children in the Yuma area.

Weinstein came to visit Yuma Regional in May to get an update on current telemedicine activities and to assess the utilization of its services.

"Babies' lives have been saved in the YRMC Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. Dozens of children with severe disabilities are being seen by a pediatric orthopedic surgeon in Phoenix over the network," Weinstein said.

Mike Sisson, applications administrator at Yuma Regional, works with telemedicine for children's health services. The equipment he works with is a Tandberg Edge 95 MXP PrecisionHD camera that is connected to a 50-inch Panasonic flat-screen plasma television.

Sisson said that he works mostly with children who are in wheelchairs and whose families can't afford to drive outside of Yuma to see a doctor.