The MRTC provides both consultative services and direct care to patients. Telemedicine consultations involve an urban specialist physician interacting
with a rural physician or other health care provider.

In some cases, the patient is not present and the consultation occurs between health care providers only. In other cases, the specialist physician and patient may
meet via video, without the referring rural provider. The third scenario brings all three
people together simultaneously to address the patient's condition together.

The MRTC is aggressively developing telemedicine and telehealth applications to provide services to rural emergency departments and to nursing homes. Telehome health for chronically ill patients is another area being explored.