Medical care has long been an intensely technological field, making advancements that seem to come straight out of science fiction. And today’s e-health advances are more of the same — saving lives through innovative uses of technology.

A new study from the Internet Innovation Alliance (IIA) shows that broadband Internet service has accelerated the development of telemedicine technologies that are providing healthcare to more Americans at a reduced cost. For example, improvements in video conferencing are allowing medical staff to remotely diagnose and consult, which means less time wasted in waiting rooms for simple visits and better care for the rural poor and home-based patients. The best specialists in the world are now available to help rural doctors with their toughest cases or offer immediate second opinions on MRIs, CT scans or X-rays.

This example from the report jumped out at me:

“The University of Arkansas’ ANGELS program connects physicians at more than 40 sites with pregnant women in rural communities to improve pre-natal care and reduce the number of low birth weight babies. In 2005, the program’s call center received an average of 2,500 calls a month and facilitated more than 400 critical hospital transports.”

The IIA is urging Congress to establish a National Commission on Telemedicine that would design a program to accelerate these e-health breakthroughs; provide financial incentives, including supportive insurance reimbursement, to encourage more medical institutions and practitioners to take up telemedicine; and remove regulatory and statutory barriers to these innovative programs.

When you consider that a mother in a rural Arkansas clinic might be receiving life-saving medical care for her newborn from a renowned specialist working over a broadband network, you have to wonder: What are we waiting for?

One Response to “How broadband is being used to save lives”

1. New Lifesaving Medical Program. | 7Wins.eu Says:
   August 3rd, 2008 at 10:20 pm

   [...] Life (COPYRIGHT SAFE GUARD MEDI-SYSTEMS CORP 2005,2006,2007) Sites you may be interested in NextGenWeb: New. Comprehensive. Innovative. » How broadband is being used to save livesA Lifesaving Tool Against Cervical Cancer Remains Underused « Tags electronic medical record usb [...]

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