Clyburn Plugs Broadband Health Mapping Tool for Identifying 'Critical Need' Areas
Commissioner Mignon Clyburn lauded an FCC broadband health mapping platform as "a monumental step" that's building knowledge and awareness about the importance of advanced health services. Calling it "simply unacceptable" that 34 million Americans lack access to 25 Mbps connectivity…
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and others can't afford it, she said the initiative is helping identify areas with "critical need" for broadband health solutions. "It is designed to assist those committed to closing infrastructure gaps, to ensure that everyone has access to the technology necessary, and enable quick and top-rated health care assistance," she said, according to prepared remarks Thursday at a state telehealth summit in Columbia, South Carolina: The interactive tool "will enable those in both the public and private sectors to access and analyze statistics about broadband connectivity, as well as health and other indexes on a national, state, and county level." Clyburn said the tool overlays broadband data with key health information down to the county level. "Using this data, the FCC also has been able to identify, what we call the 100 'critical need' counties, meaning those communities with limited broadband access and very high health needs," she said, noting the initiative was launched by a Connect2Health task force in August (see 1608020017). She said requests for the USF Healthcare Connect Fund, which has an annual budget of $400 million, "reached a historic high of nearly $378 million" in funding year 2015, the most recent available.