Broadband & Healthcare Jason Crosby Strategic 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.

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