Today I had lunch with Jonathan Linkous, CEO of the American Telemedicine Association (ATA), and we had a very enthusiastic discussion of how our two organizations can work together in the future. ATA is devoted to promoting the use of advanced remote medical technologies. The organization works with a diverse membership, comprised of providers, clinics, insurance companies and medical practitioners, to integrate telemedicine into transformed health care systems to improve the quality, equity and affordability of health care throughout the world.
There are so many ways that our associations and members can–and should–work together in the future that I invited Jonathan to speak at our upcoming Fall Conference in Chicago. Working with local clinics and health care professionals in rural America is a natural first start for rural telecom providers as they look for ways to expand their broadband adoption.
1 comment
Mary Hill
February 19, 2013 at 11:34 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Terrific idea there is such a wide variety of ways that broadband can help our communities through better and affordable health care. The connection between rural citizens, health care providers, insurance companies, emergencies/disaster responders is of ultimate importance to thriving in rural America. A topic that the emergency medical field has been discussing to benefit rural America is community medics. Utilize the emergency responders to provide health care in rural areas as a way to have their advanced skills available during the emergency. The community medic program would provide a job to those advanced care providers in rural health care and the utilization of telemedicine and other broadband deployments could be a tremendous assist to communities during ordinary times and during emergencies. I will look forward to his presentation at the fall conference.