FCC Chairman Wheeler at FCC-Mayo Clinic Broadband Health Summit

Today’s broadband networks – wired and wireless – have the potential to revolutionize healthcare like no technology before. Our collective challenge is how do we seize the opportunities of broadband communications to improve the quality of healthcare, save lives, and lower costs? It starts with making sure that we have fast, fair, and open broadband networks available to all Americans.

But an open Internet and faster networks are not sufficient to assure the development and widespread adoption of digital health solutions. We at the Federal Communications Commission must stay engaged with providers and the healthcare system but also consumers, caregivers, and other key stakeholders in the health space so that we can best understand all the challenges that must be overcome, the infrastructure needs that exist, and, most importantly, the opportunities that broadband might be able to support in the health space.