FCC gives $417 million in grants to connect rural clinics with telehealth
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has announced it will distribute $417 million over three years in grants to 69 rural telehealth organizations in an effort to connect rural health clinics with high speed Internet. About 6,000 hospitals, research centers, universities and clinics in rural areas will be connected with high speed Internet, which could aid in everything from managing electronic health records to transmitting images and videos of patients to specialists hundreds of miles away for diagnosis.
The program will "play a critical role in the way technology will transform health care," FCC Chairman Kevin J. Martin said... "Not only will a telehealth network connect doctors to patients who have never had access to medical treatment, but they can have access to the top resources on the other side of the country."
The grants will come from the Universal Service Fund, created from long distance and wireless service fees. The Fund is intended to subsidize phone and Internet service to schools, libraries, low-income populations and rural areas -- but money allocated for telehealth services has, as of yet, been under-utilized.
Many rural health clinics currently rely on slow dial-up Internet service which restricts the clinics' ability to employ telemedicine to treat rural patients. High speed Internet access will make a world of difference, as successful programs like ANGELS in Arkansas prove. According to Robert M. Kolodner, national coordinator for health information technology at the Department of Health and Human services:
"Trying to do this on dial-up would be essentially impossible. The key is to take away that barrier."
Properly utilizing the Universal Service Fund to improve telehealth for rural areas is a fantastic step in the right direction, but in order to make sure the entire country -- rural and otherwise -- has the opportunity to use these resources, we must have universal high speed Internet access.
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