Gary Shannon continues his efforts in medical geography despite not fully understanding the current direction/location or paradigm of the specialty. Nevertheless, he remains undaunted and has focused his efforts on telemedicine...continuing his practice of searching out topics unsullied by more proficient medical geographers. Surprisingly, he recently completed the co-authored “History of Telemedicine: Evolution, Context, and Transformation” sponsored by National Library of Medicine.  Additionally, he is working in a strange new field for him, namely, the application of GIS techniques to assess access to current distributions of specialists and potential access of at-risk populations to remote fixed and mobile telemedicine sites. Still not understanding how it works, thus far, he and much smarter co-authors have conducted analyses of pediatric endocrinologists and dermatologists … psychiatrists are next.  He hopes to demonstrate the utility of the approach for planning and implementing telemedicine networks.  Additionally, he co-authored “National Telemedicine Initiatives: Essential to Health Care Reform.” He continues to search for pleasant venues to present his work, regardless of discipline.

Meanwhile, an eclectic out of necessity, Shannon is also working on several projects dealing with the social and cultural transformation of the Detroit landscape as manifest by closing of the Catholic churches and public schools.  Work on a volume pertaining to his home town, “River Rouge (Michigan) Chronicle: History of an Industrial Village” (his hometown) has reached a length of more than 2000 pages (not including maps and illustrations); and, he is desperately seeking a publisher. He continues to summer on his (very small) island in Canada where he contemplates his alma mater's (University of Michigan) recent string of football debacles against the "team of thugs" from the state just south of Michigan as well as the recent coaching hire.