Broadband is the Achilles' heel of telehealth

As wonderful as telehealth is, it has a serious Achilles' heel. The fate of telehealth adoption is tied to the fate of broadband adoption. And broadband in millions of additional homes isn't strong enough to drive telehealth. Redlining, politics, and adverse economics leaves low-income communities stuck with outdated, broken infrastructure. Annually, billions in government spending to replace obsolete networks passes over big cities and are squandered by large telecom and cable companies before broadband reaches rural homes. The United Soybean Board surveyed farm operations nationwide in 2021, for instance, and found that nearly 60 percent of US farmers and ranchers do not believe they have adequate Internet connectivity to run their businesses let alone meet personal and family needs. Some of the major barriers to quality internet include slow internet speeds, high costs and unreliable service. Yet broadband issues often stem from capacity, not speed issues. Community broadband is often great for curing capacity barriers – networks owned by cities and counties, telephone and electrical co-ops, wireless or local internet service providers, and public-private partnerships. Ask around! Somebody in town might already be planning to build one. Or maybe your health community can lead the pack.

[Saved from a stroke by telehealth, Craig Settles pays it forward by uniting community broadband teams and healthcare stakeholders through telehealth-broadband integration initiatives.]