Rachel Brown

The Foundation for Rural Service and the Rural Telephone Finance Cooperative published an issue on Aging in Place and the Role of Broadband as part of their Rural Telecom Educational Series. Here are some fast facts that make telemedicine compelling:

• Almost 13 percent of Americans are 65 years or older. By 2030, that is expected to be 19 percent – that’s nearly one in five people.
• AARP found that nearly 90 percent of Americans 65 or older want to stay in their homes for as long possible.
• Nearly 4 percent more rural seniors are in nursing homes than their urban counterparts
• According to the National Rural Health Association, only 10 percent of physicians practice in rural America despite the fact that nearly one-fourth of the population lives in these areas.