BANGOR — A consortium that is electronically linking rural and urban health care facilities across Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont has hit a milestone.

The Bangor-based New England Telehealth Consortium says it has now connected 200 facilities, marking the halfway point toward the 400 or so facilities in the consortium.

The consortium is creating a broadband network connecting hospitals, community health centers and other facilities in primarily rural locations so they can share medical information and consult over the Internet.

Jim Rogers, founder of the consortium and president of the company managing the network’s implementation, says the system improves health care capabilities in northern New England while cutting costs.

FairPoint Communications has upgraded and continues to build out its broadband system to provide the telemedicine services to the health care facilities.

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