Official FCC Blog

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Broadband connectivity is transforming America’s health care system, creating better, faster, and more cost-effective health care across the country. The sector represents almost 18 percent of the nation’s GDP, and increased efficiency has the power to lower costs, create better results for patients, and trigger economic growth.

At the January 31 Open Commission Meeting, Julius Knapp, Chief of  the FCC’s Office of Engineering and Technology and Linda Oliver from the Wireline Competition Bureau delivered an update on the Commission’s work to support wireless and wireline connectivity for health, including the new Healthcare Connect Fund and the FCC’s ongoing work to expand spectrum access for wireless medical devices.

The FCC also hosted a telemedicine demonstration by the Georgia Partnership for Telehealth (GPT), which focuses on increasing access to health care through innovative use of technology. During the live demo, Dr. Debra Lister from Coffee Regional Medical Center, an FCC Rural Health Care Pilot Program participant, conducted a simulated patient exam – allowing the audience in Washington, D.C. to hear the heartbeat of a patient in rural Bacon County, Georgia. Innovations like these mean that soon, geography won’t have to impede the delivery of quality health services.

Pictured Above: Les Evans of Georgia Partnership for Telehealth (GPT),shows Chin Yoo from the FCC’s Rural Health Care team, how a specialist in DC could hear a patient’s heartbeat in rural Georgia.

Today the FCC launched a new and improved LEARN website.

The LEARN (Learn Everything About Reverse-Auctions Now) website is a one-stop information resource for incentive auction stakeholders, particularly broadcasters.  Informing, educating, and reaching out to the broadcaster community is critical for both broadcasters who want to take advantage of the unique opportunities the incentive auction will provide and those who do not.  The new and improved LEARN website provides easy access to current, clear, concise, and accurate information designed to help broadcasters make informed business decisions about participating in the incentive auction.    

One of the many new features on the site is an 11-page summary of the broadcast incentive auction process, prepared by the Incentive Auction Task Force staff.  This FCC Staff Summary highlights the key issues considered in the broadcast incentive auction notice of proposed rulemaking. 

The Staff Summary and all of the other new informational tools on the new and improved LEARN site will help inform all stakeholders, and are just a few of the many ways the FCC is working towards a successful incentive auction.  We look forward to your feedback!

WISENET (Women in ICTs Shared Excellence Network) is the International Bureau’s convening platform that aims to leverage the experience, resources and connections of the international Information and Communications Technology (ICT) community to better the situation of women, their communities and their countries. As part of this work, the FCC has invited prominent women and men in technology from around the world to post blogs sharing their experiences.

I love data. I love collecting it, playing with it, and using it for decision making. My firm, Sonjara, builds custom data applications for non-profits, academic institutions and governments, so we know a lot about how valuable data is, and the challenges of collecting and maintaining it.

“Without data, there is no visibility; without visibility, there is no priority.”[1] In a world of "big data", where more and more data is needed for decision-making, no data – or data locked in a PDF document – means an issue with no visibility.

This is a serious problem in the intersecting fields of gender equality and information and communication technology policy. Those of us working in both fields see massive gender disparity in the use and access to ICT.  However, the only evidence to date of this disparity exists anecdotally and in small case studies and data sets. Without a larger data set as evidence, it is difficult to prove the importance of incorporating a gender component into ICT for development activities. There are two things we can do to improve this situation:

WISENET (Women in ICTs Shared Excellence Network) is the International Bureau’s convening platform that aims to leverage the experience, resources and connections of the international ICT community to better the situation of women, their communities and their countries. As part of this work, the FCC has invited prominent women and men in technology from around the world to post blogs sharing their experiences.

Imagine going through 12+ years of school and then being told that you don't have the skills necessary for a job.

The founder and CEO of a global IT company based in India told me that there were plenty of people being trained in his country, but there were few that he would be willing to hire. The “reason,” he claimed, they didn’t have the skills necessary to compete in the global business economy.  In my research, I have had countless experiences watching students in East Africa, India and the United States memorizing and regurgitating information rather than being taught critical thinking, problem solving, and ways to communicate ideas effectively. These transferable skills are often missing in educational systems, but are essential to innovate and compete in a global workforce.

For technology corporations like Intel, a properly trained workforce is the foundation of our business and ability to innovate. That is why skills development is a key component of Intel's education strategies – whether that’s equipping young people with digital or information literacy skills, or training teachers to use technology to deliver 21st century learning skills.

Unfortunately, access to skills training is unequal – poor young women are least likely to have skills to become a productive force in the economy.