Good stuff, Layton. Some comments and queries: Layton E. Olson wrote: > Note Illinois rural healthnet project has been awarded 3 year FCC $21 > million grant for rural ICT infrastructure connections among hospitals, > health institutions and clinics, and with potential for connection with > urban areas, as part of over $400 million in national Universal Service > commitments (from phone user fees) pilot program in many states > announced last December. > $400 million could buy a lot of health anywhere in the world - that is certainly a lot to spend. It is a pilot program, though - what metrics are they using to assess whether the pilot project is a success? I ask because those metrics would certainly be useful for this discussion and others; such data would be worth it's weight in gold. > The need now in all states is to generate matching funds to launch major > ICT infrastructure efforts, including to provide fiber and wireless > access to lower the costs of data intensive communications (e.g. > radiology, cardiology, pediatrics, psychiatry) as well as to work with > community health information outreach and health fair networks in > underinvested areas. Many state departments of aging and health > services work in annual online November-December signups for Medicare > prescription insurance programs, and many persons go to senior centers > and health outreach programs for online signups for this complex > process. > Interesting - I keep forgetting that in some places of the world, health care and paying for health care are synonymous (when did that happen?).
I do believe that medical facilities should have better interconnections within themselves and without. When in Guyana in 2005, I was shocked to learn that a local hospital (St. Joseph Mercy) had been offered networking by IBM for $50,000 US equivalent - a ridiculous amount of Guyanese dollars (in the millions). I ordered some pizza and got some of the IT folk to help run the wire on a Saturday. This, of course, was not an official project done by a non-profit... instead, just some good people trying to improve things. Whether that network is in use now - I do not know (and somehow doubt it due to inertia). But - are interconnections between medical facilities and within themselves... do they constitute a part of the digital divide? I think that they are, after some thought, and I think that the digital divide within and surrounding medical facilities is certainly something that should be explored more. If there is one place that I would say suffers a divide, it would be medical practitioners in the developing world... and if they don't have access - they who can interpret medical information and communicate it to their patients - well, that has a direct impact. As it is, any hypochondriac can find new and interesting things to go to their doctor with... In the Caribbean, specifically Guyana and Trinidad and Tobago (where I have some contacts and experience), I do know that such divides exist. What is being done about them? I can't tell you anything concrete, but what I can tell you is that the inertia of staff and administration seems to pose more of a threat than an ebola outbreak... -- Taran Rampersad Presently in: San Fernando, Trinidad [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.knowprose.com http://www.your2ndplace.com Pictures: http://www.flickr.com/photos/knowprose/ "Criticize by creating." — Michelangelo "The present is theirs; the future, for which I really worked, is mine." - Nikola Tesla _______________________________________________ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@digitaldivide.net http://digitaldivide.net/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.
