WASHINGTON — A federal grant of up to $4.9 million will be used to build a broadband network linking about 96 rural and urban healthcare providers throughout Hawai'i and the Pacific island region.

The project's area extends about 6,200 miles from the U.S. Mainland through Hawai'i to American Samoa, Guam and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands to serve a population spread across 11 islands.

Once the network is running, rural healthcare providers will be able to tap the expertise of modern medical centers, concentrated in urban areas, at speeds of up to 1 billion bytes of information a second.

"This is something that is fantastic news for us," said Dale Moyen, telehealth manager at Hawai'i Pacific Health, which runs Straub, Kapi'olani, Pali Momi and Wilcox hospitals. "All the partners (in the project) have been wanting to do something like this for years."

The Hawai'i project was among 69 rural healthcare grants to build statewide or regional networks that the Federal Communications Commission awarded last week.

The grants, totaling $417 million over the next three years, will be used to connect more than 6,000 public and nonprofit healthcare providers nationwide. The grants cover up to 85 percent of the cost of the projects.

FCC Chairman Kevin J. Martin said the high-speed communication networks are "particularly critical" to people in rural areas, where medical services can be limited.

Telemedicine programs allow patients to receive care in a variety of specialties, including cardiology, radiology, psychiatry and pediatrics.

"This may not seem like a big deal to those of us who need only drive a couple of miles to visit our local doctor or dentist," Martin said. "But it can mean everything to those patients who don't have the luxury or who don't have access to healthcare at all."

The Hawai'i project will interconnect the State Telehealth Access Network to several others serving the state government and the University of Hawai'i.

It also will interconnect networks of major healthcare providers, including the state's Department of Health, the Hawai'i Health Systems Corp., the Hawai'i Pacific Health system, the Department of Veterans Affairs Pacific Island Health Care System and the American Samoa Medical Center.

Moyen said there are roughly a dozen networks of varying size and capability that are focused on telehealth in Hawai'i and the Pacific.

He added that 90 percent of the medical specialists are on O'ahu and this allows patients to be helped without the time or expense of traveling there.

"If you are living on a Neighbor Island or in the Pacific and you need specialty care, such as a cardiologist, neurologist or you have a high-risk pregnancy, you would have to come to Honolulu," he said. "What this now means for a patient is that they may now be able to stay in their community and receive a telemedicine consultation."

Reach Dennis Camire at dcamire@gns.gannett.com.