Baton Rouge was honored by the Louisiana Municipal Association Saturday for becoming the second U.S. city to implement a telemedicine program that allows doctors to treat patients en route to the emergency room.

The telemedicine program, called Baton Rouge Med-Connect, earned the LMA’s 2009 “basic services” award for cities with populations over 25,000.

In a press release issued late Saturday, the LMA noted that the program delivers pre-hospital care for heart-attack victims while they are transported to the hospital.

Mayor Melvin “Kip” Holden said the new system can also help to save accident victims and other trauma cases, especially in cases involving long transports.

The only other American city with a similar ambulance program is Tucson, Ariz., Holden said. But he noted that the technology is widely used overseas in countries with a shortage of physicians and hospitals.

Holden said he first saw a telemedicine ambulance during a 2007 conference in Jerusalem. He was so impressed with the system in Jerusalem that he started work on a Baton Rouge version as soon as he returned home.

The new telemedicine program allows physicians to begin treatment as soon as a patient is loaded into an ambulance, Holden said..