States will begin receiving millions of dollars in federal funds to create high-speed wireless networks for telemedicine and electronic health records. Under the Rural Health Care Pilot Program, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) dedicated over $400 million over three years to build statewide or regional broadband telehealth networks in 42 states and three territories. The agency announced the funding and selected participants on November 19, 2007.

The 69 statewide or regional broadband telehealth networks will connect rural public and non-profit health care providers, such as hospitals, universities and correctional facilities in order to accelerate the adoption and deployment of telehealth. Any existing telehealth networks will be leveraged and built upon to create a more comprehensive system.

Notable guidelines for the pilot program:

• Participants can obtain funding for up to 85 percent of the costs to design, engineer and construct their networks
• The networks are to connect to national high-speed infrastructures such as the Internet, Internet 2, or National LambdaRail
• Though the FCC cannot mandate their compliance with AHIC standards, they are requiring, where possible, to coordinate with HHS to utilize the standards
• All projects must be competitively bid
• The projects will be subject to quarterly reviews, oversight and audits

INPUT's Take:

• This is an essential win in realizing a nationwide health information exchange network, as telecommunications is a fundamental building block
• This pilot program is a good start at putting the networks in place to build a system, though more than money may be needed to actually encourage use
• Selected participants will look to partner with vendors as they seek bids for expanding and upgrading networks, purchasing equipment, and services for training