FCC to promote mobile health apps in broadband plan

The Federal Communications Commission wants to foster the use of wireless devices and applications in healthcare as part of a national broadband plan the agency expects to release next month, according a senior FCC official.

The FCC plan will describe "where government has a role to reduce some of the hurdles to these technologies both in connectivity and to promote innovation in applications," said Dr. Mohit Kaushal, digital healthcare director of the FCC's Omnibus Broadband Initiative. As part of the plan, the FCC will analyze health IT applications enabled by broadband, including electronic health record systems, video conferencing and remote monitoring, Kaushal said at a Feb. 3 conference sponsored by the mHealth Initiative, which advocates the use of cell phones and other mobile devices to improve healthcare. One of the biggest issues for the long-term future of mobile devices is the finite amount of spectrum, or radio frequencies that carry voice and data wirelessly.

"FCC must efficiently allocate the spectrum that is available in order to drive innovation for both infrastructure and applications," Kaushal said.