U.S. Agriculture Deputy Secretary Kathleen Merrigan visited North Carolina to announce more than $500,000 in funding for two regional health centers.

Merrigan announced distance Learning and Telemedicine grants Wednesday for Vidant Health's Pitt Memorial Hospital Foundation and Ocracoke Health Center. She also spoke at the USDA Small Business Training and Matchmaking conference in Durham, and held a White House Business Council Round table with Morrisville producers and community members.

Vidant Health's foundation is receiving $161,047 to provide video and audio telemedicine equipment to increase health care in four northeastern counties.

Ocracoke Health Center will receive $358,967 in grant funding for the purchase of cart-based video conferencing units specialized for medical practice. The units will allow 12 simultaneous connections with high definition video.

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