Use telehealth to fight the Coronavirus pandemic? Sure. However, it’s about mitigating the impact of the virus on local healthcare more than fighting the disease itself.

This technology isn’t just video chat with your doctor. It’s a broadband-lead makeover of your local healthcare environment.

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Telehealth is using intranet and Internet networks to diagnose, administer, initiate, assist, monitor, medically intervene, and/or report on the continuum of care (CoC) – that is, everything done medically to get you healed. Telehealth is every point along the CoC that broadband can influence.

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But remember – no broadband, NO telehealth!! Historically, communities and co-ops have built broadband networks well, which is good because right now you don’t have a lot of time.
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 This month I announced a five-city telehealth pilot project to combat high blood pressure in urban and rural communities. One of the things I’ll assessed is the role of broadband in telehealth.

Why the need for fast broadband for telehealth. “All I need is a smartphone and a cellular hook up, right?” “I’m only sending a few kilobytes of data.” “Why do you need a GoFundMe campaign to study telehealth?”

Why? Perception does not match reality. Telehealth represents a sea-change in healthcare. A lot of that change necessitates fast broadband.

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[Broadband Communities Magazine blog post 12/9/19]

140,000 people die from strokes every year! Most of these are caused by hypertension (high blood pressure) and stress. December can be a real killer.

Barbershops probably aren’t the first place you think to hold the line in this fight against hypertension. But you have to go where the people are. Community broadband (highspeed Internet access) and telehealth can get you there.

This month starts a five-city, six-week telehealth pilot project barbershops and hair salons in which urban and rural communities will connect USB blood pressure cuffs to telehealth platforms via community networks in a pilot project to attack hypertension, the leading cause of strokes.

There are several significant benefits for uniting community broadband and telehealth. Telehealth can motivate barbershops’ customers to sign up for broadband, which means new subscriber revenue. For example in one of the pilot cities, 27% Cleveland, Ohio’s 173,025 households don’t have Internet access according to the 2018 American Community Survey. How can telehealth impact community efforts such as Cleveland’s DigitalC, a non-profit ISP with a $20/month, 50 Mbps wireless service that targets underserved neighborhoods?

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The International Economic Development Council (IEDC) and started surveying government economic development officials about community broadband’s effect in 2006. Each year the survey has illuminated both the challenges and the benefits of community networks.

This is just a short summary of the complete analysis report. The full report is due mid-July.

What does IEDC the 2019 survey reveal?

Every survey starts with IEDC members highlighting the lay of the land in terms of wireless and wired broadband networks. For the first time, this year’s survey respondents offer feedback on the roles of wireless and co-ops in community broadband.

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“Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.” Ralph Waldo Emerson.

You can’t have great effective telemedicine without strong Internet connections, the stronger the better. In the other camp, community broadband network owners (cities, co-ops, WISPs, rural ISPs) need creative marketing strategies to ensure their financial sustainability. However, especially among this qualities and co-ops, they may not be used to operating in a competitive environments.

Luckily, there are telemedicine vendors and community network owners stepping up to become trailblazers by establishing marketing partnerships with each other. They are discovering there might be gold in them thar cyber hills.

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I delivered a webinar presentation hosted by Vsee, a telehealth Solutions vendor. The gist of my presentation was, there can only be great telehealth where there is great broadband. Subsequently, effective broadband policy facilitates telehealth and vice versa.

Here are some links to resources, policy and advocacy groups and articles that supplemented my presentation. Feel free to send me additional items that should be included in this list.

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