Telemedicine to Transform Healthcare for Underserved and Rural Communities

Julius Genachowski

January 07, 2013

Today, I visited the Oakland Children’s Hospital & Research Center where I met with hospital representatives and staff from the Alameda County Health Care Services Agency, the California Telehealth Network and the Juvenile Justice Center.

Broadband has the potential to completely transform health care infrastructure in our country, improving quality of care for patients, while shaving billions of dollars off patient and healthcare system costs.

At the Children’s Hospital, I was pleased to discuss the FCC’s new Healthcare Connect Fund. Beginning in 2013, the Fund will spur the development of broadband networks to support modern telemedicine, which will link urban medical centers to rural clinics and provide instant access to health records.

The Fund, which expands the Commission's health care broadband initiative from pilot to program, will provide up to $400 million annually to significantly boost telemedicine services and delivery for communities in need.

This new funding, along with major reforms to enhance efficiency will allow thousands of new providers across the country to share in the benefits of connectivity while dramatically cutting per-megabit connectivity costs for both hospitals and the Universal Service Fund (USF).

While at the children’s hospital, I witnessed how a patient at the Juvenile Justice Center receives medical attention through physicians at the Oakland Children’s Hospital, and saw firsthand how telemedicine is helping doctors and other healthcare professionals connect with patients and people in need of care in rural and underserved communities far from the hospital’s treatment rooms.

Telemedicine applications like these provided over robust broadband networks can facilitate immediate diagnoses and care needed to prevent lasting damage to stroke victims, prevent premature births and deliver psychiatric treatment for patients in rural areas. Numerous studies have shown that telehealth improves access to health care, boosts quality of care, and increases cost efficiencies in the delivery of care.

Hospitals and healthcare providers across the country are seeing these results.

For example, in South Dakota, e-ICU services have saved eight hospitals over $1.2 million in patient transfer costs over just 30 months. In upstate New York, a network of about 50 providers expect $9 million in cost savings from providing cardiology, trauma, mental health, neurology and respiratory services over their broadband connections.

The FCC will begin accepting applications for the Fund beginning in late summer of 2013.

Public or not-for-profit hospitals, rural health clinics, community health centers, health centers serving migrants, community mental health centers, local health departments or agencies, and teaching hospitals among others are eligible to apply for funding.

The Healthcare Connect program builds on major reforms over the past three years which have seen the FCC modernize all four of the USF programs for broadband. Our new Connect America Fund, which supports home, business, and mobile broadband in rural areas, is already helping bring broadband to hundreds of thousands of Americans and extending mobile service to tens of thousands of road miles across the country.

Americans living in underserved or rural communities should not be disenfranchised from the best quality medical care available and our commitment and investment will help ensure this is not the case.