From Broadband to Better Health Care
The new ADTRAN whitepaper highlights the role of broadband in providing better healthcare.
Telemedicine usage and telehealth initiatives are growing year over year, with the most recent surge in usage driven by the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic. Stay-at-home orders and social distancing compelled doctors and therapists to embrace telemedicine virtual visits for the safety of both patients and physicians. There has been steady growth in healthcare systems using broadband networks to quickly and more efficiently deliver access to electronic health records and hasten the assessment of imaging tests. Delivering the best medical care requires a 21st century network capable of delivering gigabit-class symmetrical speeds to hospitals, doctors’ offices, and individual households.
However, today’s telemedicine surge is only the tip of the digital health care iceberg. Telehealth and computational medicine initiatives that combine cloud applications, artificial intelligence, Big Data, the Internet of Things (IoT), and off-the-shelf consumer electronics offer the promise of improving individual health care, preventive medicine, and treatment of existing conditions. Data validation and integration from home devices such as blood pressure cuffs, activity trackers, or Apple Watches are now in the early stages of adoption. One can soon envision these enhancing patient care and improving outcomes by potentially providing early warning signs of everything from cardiac issues to virus infection.
Download the paper to learn more.