Rosenworcel on Broadband Acce and Spectrum for Healcare

STATEMENT OF

COMMISSIONER JESSICA ROSENWORCEL

Re:

Expanding Broadband Access and Spectrum Availability for Healthcare

(January 31, 2013)

Telemedicine in all its formsmHealth, remote monitoring, and telehealthis no longer

a dream from the distant future. It is here and now, and it is an integral part of modern medicine.

The numbers tell this story very clearly. The American Telemedicine Association

estimates that more than 10 million Americans directly benefited from telemedicine services last

year. This is double what it was only three years ago. More than 5 million Americans had their

medical images read remotely last year and 1 million Americans currently benefit from remote

cardiac monitoring for implantable devices. In hospitals, a full 10 percent of all intensive care

unit beds now use telemedicine in some form. Add to these numbers the tens of thousands of

mobile health applications available on smartphonesand you quickly get the picture.

Technology is changing the nature of medicine and the way it is practiced in communities in

urban areas, rural areas, and everything in between.

As we have heard today, the Commission has already contributed to the success of

telemedicineby across the board increasing access to wireless and broadband networks that

support a range of new health IT applications. But the best is yet to come. Anytime, anywhere

healthcare technology is bound to be the foundation of medicine in the digital age.

Yet there will still be challengessome internal to this agency, others at its margins. So

going forward we must work with our federal partners at the Food and Drug Administration and

the Department of Health and Human Services to make sure that our efforts are always in

concert. Moreover, we should strive to make sure that digital age care is not fenced by state

borders and old rules premised on local paperwork. To this end, it is important to study how the

Servicemembers' Telemedicine and E-Health Portability Act has helped streamline rules and

foster the use of telemedicine across the countryimproving healthcare and reducing cost.

Thank you to the Wireline Competition Bureau and Office of Engineering and

Technology for your work on this presentationand for your upcoming efforts on all the good

things telemedicine ahead.

LINK:	http://www.fcc.gov/document/rosenworcel-broadband-access-and-spectrum-...
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