The Future of Rural Health Care

By Brad

IIA Broadband Ambassador Carl Taylor recently penned an editorial on the promise of telemedicine for the Birmingham News. Here’s an excerpt:

Telemedicine is quickly burgeoning into one of the most significant and cost-effective services in the health care industry. In addition to monitoring patients with diseases such as diabetes and heart disease, telemedicine can be used for a host of other applications, including emergency-room triage, neurology, pediatrics, mental health and geriatrics.

The applications of telemedicine are indeed endless, and the ability of specialists to provide services to those in remote areas via broadband creates a truly wonderful opportunity to revolutionize the quality of health care services to the most isolated communities. Moreover, telemedicine fits neatly into the vision of a fully electronically integrated system of health care as envisioned by the president and the Department Health and Human Services and Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology.

The future of health care in Alabama and across the United States is promising, and that promise lies in the continued development of modern broadband Internet infrastructure that will support life-enhancing telemedicine applications.

Check out the full editorial.