FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler and Commissioner Mignon L. Clyburn today both emphasized that the value of broadband service lies in the uses that people make of it—such as enabling telehealth services—rather than in the networks themselves. “It’s not physical networks that drive social change.  It’s the use of those networks,” Chairman Wheeler said at a policy summit organized by the FCC’s Connect2Health Task Force in Jacksonville, Fla.

Similarly, Commissioner Clyburn said, “It’s not about the systems, but how these systems empower consumers.”  She urged participants to “focus on what all of us can do to ensure that these broadband solutions can be available to all of us, not only in Florida but across the nation” and to “make sure that every citizen in this country is comfortable with signing on [to broadband service] and can afford to stay on.”

The event began yesterday with a consumer event in Miami, at which Chairman Wheeler said today he “saw stethoscopes connected to the Internet.”

He pointed out that the healthcare sector was quick to recognize the benefits of wireline voice service when it was new.  “The first commercial telephone line was installed in Hartford, Conn., in 1877.  The first subscribers to the line were 21 doctors connecting to the Capitol Avenue Pharmacy,” he said.  Now, he added, “virtualizing health care is our opportunity at this point in history to have our network effect” on this sector.

Among the applications highlighted by speakers at today’s event were telescreening for signs of stroke; video game–like rehab and testing; HealthSpot stations that “bring the doctor’s office out into the community; and similar OnMed stations to be deployed soon for non-life-threatening urgent care.

The HealthSpot and OnMed stations both provide connections to healthcare professionals, with screening tools such as stethoscopes and otoscopes that the consumer-patient uses.  In the HealthSpot stations, doctors and others with the authority may send prescriptions to the consumer’s pharmacy, which might be where the HealthSpot is located, while the OnMed stations will dispense prescribed drugs stored in a vault within the station.  Presentations for both types of station emphasized self-cleaning features such as ultraviolet lights that come on between patients.

During one of the panels, Dr. Deborah Mulligan, chief medical officer at MDLive, said that “this all works fine” until a hurricane or other event knocks out the connections needed for the services. Chairman Wheeler responded, “Great point.  First the network has to work.”

In response to an audience member who asked when wireless carriers will put cellular towers in rural areas, Chairman Wheeler said, “There has to be a wireless signal.  All of these wonderful things aren’t going to happen unless there is a wireless signal.  All of these wonderful things aren’t going to happen unless there is high-speed wireless broadband.”

Panelist Alex Romillo, chief operating officer of Health Choice Network, said that his organization found that “not all patients have a stable phone.”  To “bridge that gap,” it provided smartphones loaded with apps, some of which on the surface “had nothing to do with healthcare,” such as public transit routes and schedules.  He said they discovered that some consumers go to emergency rooms for non-urgent care “because it’s a walk away rather than a bus ride away,” as their primary care physician or other medical options might be.

After the phones were distributed, “my care coordinator spent more time being a help desk on how to use the phone,” instructing patients in how to turn the phone on or off, and trouble-shooting problems with nonfunctioning phones, which, Mr. Romillo suggested, often turned out to be caused by a failure to charge the device.

Commissioner Clyburn noted in response that “there are 5 million people in this country without a dial-tone.”

On a second panel, moderator Rena Brewer, director of the Southeastern Telehealth Resource Center, said that telehealth services for senior citizens avoid “all of the mistakes and accidents that occur just in transporting these fragile citizens.”

Meredith Attwell Baker, president and chief executive officer of CTIA, also spoke at the telehealth policy summit, calling for interaction between the healthcare sector and the wireless sector in designing new systems “with each other in mind.”

“We need to convene and demystify,” Ms. Baker, a former FCC Commissioner, said.  “There are acronyms in our industry that matter to you.  LTE-U is one, which is just a fancy way of saying wireless communications using unlicensed spectrum.”  She said that “combining the security and reliability of LTE in the unlicensed ban” could be useful for telemedicine applications.

Ms. Baker asked participants to help her industry under the “use cases” for telehealth, and urged them to advocate before the FCC and Congress for more spectrum for commercial wireless applications.

Asked by an audience member whether there are “good communications between broadcast and wireless in Washington,” Ms. Baker said, “Former Sen. Gordon smith who heads the [National Association of Broadcasters] is one of my closer friends.”  She added, “We work very closely with the broadcasters. … We absolutely are working together to see what the future holds.” —Lynn Stanton, lynn.stanton@wolterskluwer.com

Courtesy TRDaily