Iron Mountain — Connect Michigan, in partnership with the Michigan Health Endowment Fund and AARP Michigan, is seeking input from area residents regarding how they use or would like to use technology in relation to their healthcare services.

Connect Michigan is conducting telephone surveys in five Michigan communities over the next two months.

This research will ultimately provide information on how rural residents access telehealth, barriers to that access, and ways to improve telehealth applications for patients and caregivers.

In addition, these surveys should provide important data that can provide guidance on opportunities for lowering healthcare costs and how providers can more effectively reach rural communities.

“I encourage everyone who is contacted to participate in this important survey. It is an opportunity for us to provide input on how we can increase our use of technology to make healthcare more accessible,” said Barbara Kramer, Dickinson County commissioner.

The Michigan Health Endowment Fund, which is providing support for the research, works to improve the health and wellness of Michigan residents and reduce the cost of healthcare, with a special focus on children and seniors.

Connect Michigan is a local subsidiary of Connected Nation, a national nonprofit. Connected Nation’s mission is to find innovative solutions that expand the access, adoption, and use of high-speed internet and its related technologies to all people so they may enjoy the opportunities and resources access affords.

The Michigan telehealth study will survey residents who are at least 60 years old and could most-directly benefit from the use of telehealth, and younger adults who are most likely to be caregivers.

Telehealth applications can range from visiting or talking with a doctor via a computer or texting to implants that can send information directly to a doctor or insurance providers.

The final report on the research is expected to be completed by August of this year.

More information about the Health Fund can be found at mhealthfund.com. For more about Connect Michigan, go to connectednation.org/Michigan.