Companies Tap Telemedicine Opportunity
January 26th, 2010
Portia Krebs
Broadband-enabled technologies are playing a pivotal role in speeding high-quality care to Americans, regardless of their geography. Telemedicine technology is uniting patients with specialists in far away places. In-home health monitoring is enabling citizens to get the care they need from the comfort and dignity of their own homes. And, in addition to these human benefits, remote monitoring could reduce health care expenditures by a net $197 billion over the next 25 years.
With so much opportunity to enhance U.S. health care and control skyrocketing medical costs, telecommunications companies are seizing the telehealth opportunity. Verizon recently started its Connected Health Care group, which aims to make care more efficient, universal, and high quality for patients nationwide. Specifically, the company’s Telehealth Collaboration Services enable video consultations between doctors and patients, which are particularly invaluable for those living in rural areas. Verizon plans to make video consultations even more widespread by extending these capabilities to mobile devices for doctors.
AT&T also has a wide variety of products and services aiding health care professionals and patients alike. Currently, the company is developing a software tool and networking platform that will record a patient’s health information at home and share the data over the high-speed Internet with his doctor. Using wireless devices, the technology will enable video conferencing and remote monitoring via medical sensors. The objective? Higher quality care at a lower cost, as well as greater convenience for patients.
As we all look for ways to improve health care, broadband is already delivering life-enhancing medical capabilities to aid patients and ease the burden on the health care system – which will only expand thanks to the innovation unleashed by the high-speed Internet.
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