The FCC’s “Connect2Health (C2H) Task Force” and the “Partnership to Fight Chronic Disease Organization” co-hosted the launch of the new “Mapping Broadband Health in America” www.fcc.gov/health/maps” platform at an event held August 2, 2016 at the Microsoft Innovation and Policy Center in Washington D.C.
Leaders in the field gathered to listen to speakers discuss and demonstrate how the FCC’s new web-based mapping tool will be instrumental in charting broadband and necessary connectivity features and the data needed to determine where today’s healthcare resources and needs are specifically located.
The mapping tool is an interactive experience showing various aspects of connectivity and health for every state and county in the U.S. Users can generate customized maps that display broadband access, adoption, and speed alongside various health measures pertaining to obesity and diabetes.
Key features also include interactive data visualization tools, unique URLs created for each customized map, easily accessible statistics at the national and state levels, customizable zoom levels to state and counties, plus open data initiatives available through APIs, along with downloadable data sets
At the event, FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler told the attendees, “We are excited to make this state-of-the-art tool available to the public. The unique insights revealed by this mapping platform can be used by businesses and policymakers to effect change and innovation.”
As pointed out by FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn, “One of the initial findings from using the mapping tool points to the significant gap between rural and urban counties. Almost 60 percent of rural Americans live in counties that have a high burden of chronic disease as well as a need for greater broadband connectivity, while less than five percent of urban America falls into the same category.”
Commissioner Clyburn said, “There are over 3000 counties in the U.S. from data produced from the last census. What the FCC C2H Task Force realized from their research on counties that in some areas skyrocketing rates of chronic disease, crippling access to care, and a lack of broadband-enabled health resources exist. These counties are called “double burden” communities where high health needs and poor connectivity intersect.”
The Commissioner added, “Many of these priority counties are concentrated in the South and Midwest, where the average eight percent fixed broadband access has provided data that shows a 14 percent higher diabetes and 24 percent higher obesity prevalence than the national average in these areas.”
Robert Williams Carr MD, President Elect, American College of Preventive Medicine, emphasized how the mapping tool can and will continue to present a big opportunity for private and public partnerships to form. The partnerships are important since interacting at the federal and state level helps to establish and activate new research projects that will provide new insights into healthcare.
George Benjamin MD, Executive Director, American Public Health Association, said “In order to meet the needs of the new world of technology, we must interact in a virtual world. It is essential to have effective and highly efficient broadband so data sources can be available and ready to be analyzed. The goal is to obtain data and then push for quick turn-around so that the all of the population in states, counties, and in small rural communities will have up-to-the minute health information.
The “Mapping Broadband Health in America website provides additional map resources but also includes a Quick Start Tutorial, FAQs, sample maps, and priority county lists, The Task Force is planning to offer a free webinar training series in the fall. When the dates for the training are announced, registration will be available at www.fcc.gov/health.
Go to www.fcc.gov/about-fcc/fcc-initiatives/connect2healthfcc for more information on the FCC’s Connect2Health Task Force. For more information on the Partnership to Fight Chronic Disease Organization, go to http://fightchronicdisease.org.