As we begin to celebrate the holiday season, the Washington Post featured the work of a couple who are focused on helping others throughout the year by harnessing the benefits of telemedicine. Working from the comfort of their home just outside of London, Pat and Roger Swinfen use the internet to link sick people with top medical specialists.

Their charity, Swinfen Charitable Trust, uses e-mail to link sick people in poor, remote or dangerous parts of the world with hundreds of medical specialists in some of the world’s finest hospitals. By emailing information and photos, doctors in areas as distant as Afghanistan and Antarctica have access to help from a network of 400 specialists.

NGW has documented similar programs here in the U.S. that maximize broadband’s capabilities to provide quality treatment and life-saving care. The Washington Post compares the Swinfen’s program to a similar system the U.S. military runs to deliver care to service members in the field. Just last week we blogged about the Angels program in Arkansas that is using broadband to deliver specialty pre-natal care straight to the homes of expecting mothers.

These telemedicine capabilities are just one area of importance. Online learning options help students in rural areas gain access to a broader range of courses and help working Americans advance their education by taking courses at night online so they can continue to work at the same time. Broadband also delivers significant environmental benefits by making it faster and easier to telecommute and hold teleconferences which help to reduce our carbon footprint.

We closely track the economic growth and job-creating opportunities broadband investment makes possible. As we engage in vital debates from health care to education to the environment, the role of broadband investment there, too, should not be underestimated.

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