TELERADIOLOGY DEMONSTRATION PROJECT.

SEC. 732. [10 U.S.C. 1092 note] TELERADIOLOGY DEMONSTRATION PROJECT. (a) Authority To Conduct Project.—(1) The Secretary of Defense may conduct a demonstration project for the purposes of increasing efficiency of operations with respect to teleradiology at military medical treatment facilities, supporting remote clinics, and increasing coordination with respect to teleradiology between such facilities and clinics. Under the project, a military medical treatment facility and each clinic supported by such facility shall be linked by a digital radiology network through which digital radiology X-rays may be sent electronically from clinics to the military medical treatment facility. (2) The demonstration project may be conducted at several multispecialty tertiary-care military medical treatment facilities affiliated with a university medical school. One of such facilities shall be supported by at least 5 geographically dispersed remote clinics of the Departments of the Army, Navy, and Air Force, and clinics of the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Coast Guard. Another of such facilities shall be in an underserved rural geographic region served under established telemedicine contracts between the Department of Defense, the Department of Veterans Affairs, and a local university. (b) Duration of Project.—The Secretary shall conduct the project during the 2-year period beginning on the date of the enactment of this Act.