UMMC Telehealth Research Program

Dr. Tearsanee Davis has dedicated her career to patients in rural areas and innovative solutions to the widespread lack of health care. The Director of Clinical Programs and Strategy for the UMMC Center for Telehealth, she is a subject matter expert on telehealth initiatives to improve access to care in rural areas, improved outcomes, and reduced healthcare costs. Dr. Davis was selected as the first nurse practitioner to serve as a Mississippi Rural Health Fellow where she has direct access to the governor and state legislators to effect change in legislative policies in Mississippi. Dr. Davis’s leadership and research has had a direct impact in diabetes care and mental health through innovative telehealth initiatives in Mississippi as well as across the nation. Dr. Davis has taken her leadership and knowledge to universities at multiple levels across the nation to introduce students as well as experienced providers to the implementation of telehealth across health care. She has presented her rural telehealth work before multidisciplinary groups and conferences nationally and internationally. Dr. Davis currently serves many leadership roles in different committees, including Mississippi Telehealth Association, American Association of Nurse Practitioners (AANP) Telehealth and Health Association Rural Health Fellow and the American Nurses Association. In 2020, she received the AANP State Award for Excellence and was inducted as an AANP Fellow. In 2021, she was named one of 70 visionary leaders by the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Nursing. Dr. Davis has publications that span nurse practitioners in e-Health and telemedicine to telemedicine in rural Mississippi that have garnered recognition with numerous awards.