Telecom Industry Encouraged to Make Bedfellows in Healthcare

Forward-thinking telecom companies can help facilitate disruptive changes to healthcare from broadband and digital health technologies, FCC Associate General Counsel Karen Onyeije said Monday during an FCBA event. She said cross-sector collaboration is crucial: “Think of the bedfellows we need to make.” The FCC plans to release an update on a broadband and opioid study in the next four to six weeks, said Onyeije. She's also chief of staff for FCC’s Connect2Health Broadband Task Force, which is designed to think five to 10 years out. Her agency is working with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to map the use of broadband as a social determinant of health, and they’ve created a conceptual model that includes opioid overdose data and mortality data in the hopes that it could help healthcare entrepreneurs identify those at risk and intervene sooner. “How do we play to where the puck will be?” Onyeije said. She cautioned that if not done correctly, the move to digital health could exacerbate health disparities because the technological advances won't be available to those who need them most. David Siddall of DS Law said that medical body area network (MBAN) technology is a classic case of spectrum sharing. When MBAN developers sought spectrum, they spent three years negotiating a sharing and interference mitigation arrangement with trade groups in the flight testing industry. The spectrum-sharing arrangement in place allows for use of the products in most U.S. hospitals, although Siddall noted that in larger cities, there might not be enough spectrum to cover all the hospitals. “The solution is more spectrum, but spectrum doesn’t grow on trees,” he said. Given the right spectrum, MBAN devices could be used to monitor patients in the home or ambulances, as well, he said. The first MBAN devices (wearable, bandage-size monitors) have yet to launch. Siddall believes product developers want to coordinate the technology with European standards first.