Broadband Census continued to nourish the broadband plan dialogue with a panel of experts (all doctors) on telemedicine at their monthly breakfast event Tuesday morning.  Much like the recent telemedicine event at the Brookings Institution last week, the challenge most often discussed is not capacity or opportunity, but how we can best get these cutting-edge telemedicine applications into widespread use.  Experts agree that adoption of the many health IT opportunities will not only save lives, but also significantly reduce health care costs.

Dr. Jay Sanders, CEO, Global Telemedicine Group and often referred to as the “father of telemedicine,” expressed frustration that the penetration of these telemedicine technologies has not reached his expectations, especially when compared to all the other aspects of our lives that have moved online.  “Entertainment, banking, and commerce are all brought directly to you.  Why not health care?” he posited, noting that the complexity is as minor as a mobile phone.

Col. Ron Poropatich, M.D., Department of the Army, believes that the battlefield situation is one that is critical for mobile health.  He is seeing tremendous success with two pilot projects; one that sends video clips to diabetics on their smartphones and one that text messages soldiers with brain injuries with reminders and wellness tips.  “Their email boxes are full, they prefer text messages.”

Dr. Adam Darkins leads the National Telehealth Programs for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.  He emphasized that the real issue he sees is not bandwidth, but taking advantage of all of the goods and services available to sustain the network.   He believes that level of adoption will really make the business case for telemedicine.

Dr. Ted Eytan, Medical Director, Delivery Systems Operations Improvement, Kaiser Permanente, has over 3.1 million people using electronic health records through their system.  With today’s broadband connections, he believes that we should all be interacting more with physicians online, as well as conducting other health transactions.  He finds this will in turn help with compliance with medical directions, which reduces re-hospitalization, which reduces costs.

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