Click below to view LIVE coverage of the Symposium on the Future of Telehealth: Essential Technologies for Clinical Research and Care hosted by the National Institutes of Health National Center for Research Resources. Joe Kvedar, M.D. Partners HealthCare Center for Connected Health will present from 1:30pm – 2:00pm EDT.
This morning, the DLC hosted a policy forum titled “Launching a New Era of DLC ideas.” NextGenWeb was onsite to provide live-streaming and video coverage of the conference. We also conducted some one-on-one interviews with key panelists.
The forum was opened by White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel and featured a keynote address from U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius. In addition to the Secretary’s address, the forum included two panel discussions on education and health care reform.
Congressman Artur Davis (D-Ala.) was featured on the education reform panel that included Democrats for Education Reform Executive Director Joe Williams, DLC Senior Fellow and Education Sector co-founder and publisher Andy Rotherham, and Loranne Ausley, from the Florida House of Representatives, District 9.
The forum also featured a health care reform panel featuring Congressman Mike Ross (D-Ark.), Chair of the Blue Dog Health Care Task Force, Chairman and CEO of eHealth Gary Lauer, and Dr. Jonathan Gruber, an MIT economist who helped design the Massachusetts health reform plan.
You can see our interviews below with Bruce Reed, Loranne Ausley, and Gary Lauer.
Click below to see full archived footage from the event.
Bruce Reed, DLC CEO
Gary Lauer, Chairman and Chief Executive Office for eHealth
Loranne Ausley, Florida House of Representatives, District 9
The Steering Committee on Telehealth and Healthcare Informatics recently hosted a briefing titled “Advances in Telemedicine: Lessons to be Learned Going Forward into an e-Enabled Healthcare Environment”.
The lunch briefing provided an overview of current issues and opportunities in Telemedicine, and focused on the adoption, implementation and policy lessons as we go forward into a new technology-enabled healthcare environment. Some of the questions that were discussed during the lunch seminar include: How does Telemedicine relate to the electronic medical record and to healthcare information exchange? What is the state, federal and private sector policy agenda for the next several years?
Presenters Included:
• Neal Neuberger, Executive Director, Institute for e-Health Policy (Moderator)
• Jonathan Linkous, Chief Executive Officer, American Telemedicine Association
• Jay H. Sanders, M.D. President and CEO, The Global Telemedicine Group
• Stuart Ferguson, Ph.D. and John Kokesh, Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium
• Walt Grant, Director of Government Affairs and IT Integration, INRange Systems, Inc.
Click below to watch NextGenWeb video coverage of the briefing
NextGenWeb recently conducted a podcast interview with Dr. Gwen O’Keefe, Associate Medical Director for Quality and Informatics at the Group Health Cooperative in Seattle, WA.
Group Health provides medical coverage and care to more than 580,000 residents in Washington state and North Idaho through Group Health Cooperative or its subsidiaries, Group Health Options, Inc. Group Health Cooperative began in 1947 as a community coalition dedicated to making quality health care available and affordable. Today it is one of the few health care organizations in the country governed by consumers. Its 1
Click below to listen to Dr. O’Keefe discuss how her organization is utilizing health information technology to improve health care for patients, including a program called the Medical Home Movement. The Medical Home Movement in particular has been found to advance societal health, and thanks to broadband, is becoming more prevalent throughout Washington State.
Click below to watch archived footage from National Journal’s State of Health Care Policy panel on Thursday, March 5.
It’s hard to keep pace with all of the broadband-enabled technologies that are impacting our lives everyday. NBC News 4 in Washington, DC recently profiled a new technology being used by George Washington University Hospital that is helping to save lives. Remember the days of doctors hearing their beepers and speeding off to the hospital to care for a patient? Today, being on call has a whole new meaning. Doctors are better enabled to offer timely analysis by viewing a patient’s vital information that is emailed directly to their wireless device. Once they receive the data they are then able to begin making live-saving decisions – without losing the precious time it takes to drive to the hospital.
Check out this compelling story of a man whose life was saved because of this new technology – made possible by broadband.
NextGenWeb recently attended a discussion on the release of a new report titled “Vital Signs Via Broadband: Remote Health Monitoring Transmits Savings, Enhances Lives”. At the event, Dr. Robert Litan, Vice President of Research and Policy at the Kauffman Foundation and author of the study, discussed the increased benefits of remote monitoring for several different types of patients, including those with chronic illnesses or conditions and the elderly. In the age of increased telemedicine and remote monitoring programs, it is broadband that facilitates those programs. Click below to see the benefits of remote monitoring, brought to you by broadband.
Broadband needs to be a top priority for the next administration. And, if we take both presidential candidates at their word — it seems like it will be. This was the primary message discussed at a summit titled “Digital Pathways to US Economic Recovery and Prosperity” held in Miami. There, industry leaders joined with state and federal legislators to call on the next administration to put broadband at the top of the list. Not only is broadband a vital communications tool, but the applications that are available via broadband will help solve some of America’s biggest challenges — like access to a top quality education, affordable health care, energy independence, jobs and the economy.
If you don’t believe us, ask some of the presenters who were there sharing stories from their communities about how broadband is improving public safety and delivering connected health services throughout rural Arkansas.
The summit was co-chaired by former FCC chairmen Michael Powell and William Kennard, who respectively serve as technology advisors for the McCain and Obama campaigns. This was a great statement that broadband is not a partisan issue, but an American issue. It is essential that America remain ahead of the curve when it comes to broadband services — ensuring our leadership role in an ever-growing global economy.
While it is imperative for the next administration to see broadband as a priority, and realize its potential to help solve some of America’s most pressing issues, it is also important that the next administration recognize that a healthy environment for investment is the surest path to get there. America’s broadband providers have already invested $30 billion just in the first half of 2008 — that is something to celebrate not regulate! We need policies that encourage that kind of investment, because as the discussion in Miami showed — the opportunity for leadership is now.
Click below to see the presentations on how broadband is improving public safety and delivering connected health services throughout rural Arkansas.
The Internet is becoming more and more accessible to seniors, and this is offering life-enhancing benefits. Data from a national survey sponsored by Verizon FiOS and Retirement Living TV shows that seniors are accessing the Internet for health information at similar rates to their younger compatriots. This is great news, considering health concerns generally increase with age. Broadband offers the promise of more information — delivered quickly to your fingertips from the comfort of home. In some circumstances, this could mean the difference between life and death, such as preventing adverse drug interactions.
According to the survey data, 62% of wired Americans over the age of 65 use the Internet to access medical information. One can conclude based on this data that more broadband adoption among seniors means greater access to much needed health information. Another interesting statistic that came out of the study is the percentage of seniors who believe the Internet has improved the way they get information about health care — 68%. While the human benefits of providing easy access to health information is foremost, the enormous cost savings that would stem from making health care information more accessible should not be forgotten. Especially at a time when health care costs are soaring nationwide.
We make no apologies on NextGenWeb for touting broadband to the hilltops! We encourage you to read this study as further evidence of broadband’s ability to offer greater access and better savings in health care for the people who need it most — America’s seniors. Click below to see the press conference announcing the survey results.
NextGenWeb recently traveled to Falls Church, VA to take a facility tour of e-ICU Envision, part of Inova Health System. Inova Health System is a not-for-profit health care system based in Northern Virginia that consists of hospitals and other health services. The e-ICU is a remote monitoring center that helps support medical personnel for 5 hospitals across northern Virginia. Critical care nurses are on call 24-7 to provide this support via high speed broadband networks.
Inova Health System uses state-of-the-art technology to connect specialist physicians in remote locations to hundreds of patients in hospitals across Northern Virginia. Video, audio, and other data including vitals and medical history are transported across high speed broadband connections to allow real time communication.
Through telemedicine, broadband has the potential to deliver huge cost savings to America’s health care system — over $300 billion annually. Click below to see a video of our facility tour and to see how Inova is utilizing broadband to deliver better healthcare to more people at a faster rate.
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