Broadband & Healthcare

Jason CrosbyStrategic Healthcare Partners

Why is Broadband Important?

Broadband adoption can dramatically improve the collections, presentation and

exchange of health care information, and also provides clinicians and consumers

the tools to transform care. Technology alone cannot heal, but when

appropriately integrated into care, technology can help health care professionals

and consumers make better decisions, become more efficient, engage in

innovation, and understand both individual and public health more effectively.

Analysis of information gathered through broadband can provide a basis for

payment reform. Payors, providers and patients are focusing increasingly on

value. However, data to measure the effectiveness of prevention and

treatment on individual and population-wide bases are lacking. This hampers

attempts to shift from a volume-focused system that pays for visits and

procedures to a value-based regime that rewards cost-effective health

improvements.

Why is Broadband Important?

Three Way Broadband Can Transform

1. It enables efficient exchange of patient and treatment information by

allowing providers to access patients’ electronic health records (EHRs)

from on-site or hosted locations.

2. It removes geography and time as barriers to care by enabling video

consultation and remote patient monitoring.

3. Broadband provides the foundation for the next generation of health

innovation and connected-care solutions.

Telemedicine

Telemedicine has become an important element of efficient

healthcare delivery, which promotes better patient care, and

even saves lives. With medical costs rising, and the

availability of insurance limited, the cost saving benefits of

telemedicine are also important.

Broadband & Telemedicine

Broadband facilitates efficiency in healthcare delivery and creates

opportunities for doctors and healthcare specialists to work together as a

virtual team – with specialists located in any part of the world. A family

practitioner in a small rural town can send medical images of a patient, to a

specialist in any part of the world for an instant expert consultation. Test

results from a hospital emergency room or laboratory can be sent to

radiologist or doctor in seconds, making rapid diagnosis a reality.

Doctors are also now sending prescriptions directly from their offices to

pharmacies, greatly reducing errors, with automatic checking for

interactions.

Electronic Health Record

Electronic Health Record has become quite the trend of late in healthcare

due to the obvious financial incentives. However, most PM systems will

be delivered with such capabilities, thereby making such systems standard

practice. So, as PM systems become more robust, practices will be

required to utilize broadband technology. If broadband is not in place,

efficient and effective use of your system will not be an option.

On the heels of EHR’s, Health Information Exchanges (HIE’s) will be a

hot topic of conversation and in some cases necessity. Again, to utilize

such a program, broadband is a MUST.

Next Phase of Broadband

Understanding the state of broadband connectivity for health care

providers is a relatively new, but important area of analysis. There is more

to be done, especially as the need for better data continues to grow. As

emerging health IT applications become more prevalent and the

importance of wireless connectivity grows, an up-to-date understanding of

broadband use cases and connectivity levels will be invaluable.

In Closing

In closing, it’s obvious to see the many advantages and in some cases

business necessity why broadband is a must. Whether its more advanced

data mining and analysis, EHR / HIE, or upgraded systems, broadband

technology has become a must. As technology has shown over the years,

upgrading is pivotal. You must upgrade your pc, operating systems,

phone systems, etc. To best utilize these tools and current PM systems,

you MUST have a broadband solution in place as well as actively manage.

Q & A