As telehealth enters a new era, connectivity is more important than ever, particularly in rural underserved areas.
“We’re focused on telehealth and telemedicine,” FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr said Wednesday as he outlined the Federal Communication Commission’s efforts to advance a Connected Care Pilot Program.
During his visit to the Tri-Area Community Health Center in Laurel Fork, Carr explained the pilot program uses technology to provide telehealth care to low-income Americans, including those living in rural areas and veterans.
“My focus, and the focus of the FCC, is” making sure rural communities get next gen technology, Carr said to the more than 70 people assembled at the clinic as well as a medical team from UVA who participated electronically from the Charlottesville campus.
Noting the importance of connectivity, Dr. Karen Rheuban, professor of pediatrics and senior associate dean for continuing medical education and external affairs at the UVA School of Medicine, said “broadband is the fourth social determinant of health.”
Dr. Richard “Dick” Santen, professor at the Diabetes and Endocrine Clinic at UVA, also works with patients in Laurel Fork through a partnership with the UVA Health System. Patients with uncontrolled A1c levels may participate in a six-month intensive program in which they receive a monitor to check A1c levels, a nutritious diet and classes to help them better manage the illness.
Santen electronically interacts with participants. “I’m in my office. The patient is here. After two minutes,” there is no distinction between the electronic and an office visit, he said.
Among the 75 patients in the program, A1c levels dropped from 10 to 8 percent. “That is a phenomenal reduction,” Santen said.
With only an estimated 5,000 endocrinologists/diabetologists for the 30 million diabetes patients, Santen said, “we clearly need extensive broadband coverage” to expand the program.
Broadband “is critical to what we want to do,” Rhueban said. “Hospitals are closing at significant rates in rural communities,” which makes healthcare delivery even more challenging. Alluding to the fact that state legislators approved funds to help make upgrades to broadband, she said “I call them the Virginia Generous Assembly.”
“I think it’s tremendous that you’re putting this effort forth and that you came here today,” Steve Terry, chairman of the Patrick County Broadband Committee, said to Carr. “We have an extreme need for broadband in our homes. Rural Americans are facing a crisis.”
Terry explained that even his landline telephone service is not as reliable as it was years ago.
“I had a serious heart attack and almost died” on May 22, Terry said. Two days earlier, his landline service was out. He said he does not have a cellular signal at his home.
“My phone (service) was out again” two days after he was discharged from the hospital, Terry said. “We’re faced with a crisis.
The infrastructure trying to provide service to us is old,” and the company that currently provides service to the area recently told their shareholders they wanted to “spin off their DSL and landline” service, Terry said.
“The FCC is doing a remarkable job at helping rural America,” Terry said, adding that while DSL has served the area for many years, “we need to be pressing hard to put our money into fiber.”
Noting a program now underway to allow electric companies to overbuild while installing fiber on their poles and rent the additional space to Internet Service Providers, Terry asked “is there any way the commission can assist?”
“We need to find a way to bridge the digital divide,” Carr said, and noted that more fiber was installed and more miles of fiber built out last year.
“The pace of the build out has been greatly accelerated” compared to previous years, Carr said. “But the results are uneven. That’s why we’re going to keep the hammer down” to make sure “everyone gets a fair shot” at next generation technology.
With the upgraded connectivity in place, speakers noted that “the sky is the limit in what we can do.”
