November 15, 2010 (NTIA Freeing Spectrum)
BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for MONDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 2010
This week's busy agenda http://www.benton.org/calendar/2010-11-14--P1W
INTERNET/BROADBAND
America's Broadband Opportunity
USDA Announces More Funding for Rural Broadband
New report highlights barriers to online learning
Colorado Ready to Approve CenturyLink-Qwest Merger, For a Price
Australia's $43 Billion Broadband Plan Faces Key Vote
PRIVACY
A Little Less Privacy, a Bit More Security
Carriers Have a Hunch There's Money in User Data
The Facebook-Google spat over who controls your data
Forget any 'Right to Be Forgotten'
MEDIA OWNERSHIP
Comcast NBC Deal Review Quickens
FCC Quizzes ivi CEO On Comcast/NBCU Online Access Issue
Bloomberg chief uses lunch to lobby Genachowski against NBC-Comcast merger
Fox News host O'Reilly suggests merger will make MSNBC's coverage less liberal [Video]
Comcast: Google TV Isn't Compatible With Our 'TV Everywhere' Service
Comcast's Burke taps two veteran programmers to lead the NBC network
Tribune creditors seek court OK to go after $250M from directors, officers
For Newsweek, Tina Brown Aims for Right Mix of Serious and Light
WIRELESS
Operators Are Sacrificing Bandwidth Hogs in the Name of Profits
LTE Not Meeting Demand From Smartphones, Tablets
AT&T Texts Mobile Users About Class-action Settlement
Do We Really Need a 2nd Broadcast System?
MEDIA & ELECTIONS
The Money & Media Election Complex
HEALTH
Should You Be Snuggling With Your Cellphone?
Huge majorities want control over health info
The convergence of mobile telephony and health care is under way
How electronic records transformed care for veterans
POLICYMAKERS
Eyeing House Commerce chairmanship, Rep Stearns plays catch-up on member donations
Rep Bobby Rush seeks to lead telecom subcommittee for Democrats
STORIES FROM ABROAD
Surveillance society soon a reality in UK, report suggests
Australia's $43 Billion Broadband Plan Faces Key Vote
Saudi Arabia blocks Facebook, says content 'crossed a line'
India's Telecommunications Minister Quits After Probe Into License Auction
MORE ONLINE
Four Ways Social Media Will Change TV
INTERNET/BROADBAND
AMERICA'S BROADBAND OPPORTUNITY
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Sec Gary Locke, Lawrence Summers]
[Commentary] Rarely is there an opportunity to simultaneously catalyze private-sector investment, help create hundreds of thousands of new jobs, and increase much needed government revenue. President Barack Obama is seizing just such an opportunity with his commitment to nearly double the amount of available commercial wireless spectrum over the next 10 years. Today, the Department of Commerce's National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) will take the first step by announcing a plan to free up 115 megahertz (MHz) of spectrum. NTIA has identified 15 MHz that can be freed up by consolidating what is currently used for meteorological observation systems. In addition, NTIA has identified 100 MHz of federal radar bands that can be shared with private users in the areas of the country currently beyond the reach of the radars. Going forward, the Department of Commerce is working to make more and better spectrum available for wireless broadband over the next 10 years. While NTIA's announcement is a significant step forward, the most promising spectrum for reallocation is currently assigned to commercial users, such as broadcast television stations and satellite telephone providers. Many of them are using it efficiently and, under the administration's plan, those who wish to continue will be able to do so. But the Administration also is seeking legislative tools that will allow broadcasters and other spectrum holders to relinquish or share their current spectrum and participate in voluntary incentive auctions. The president's spectrum initiative not only presents a unique opportunity to catalyze innovation and investment, but is part of our overall strategy for sustainable economic growth and national competitiveness. Today's actions are important steps towards more efficient and effective government use of spectrum. But to capture the full potential of mobile broadband and the innovation and job growth that it offers, we also need legislative action to provide for voluntary incentive auctions by private-sector spectrum holders. [Locke is U.S. secretary of commerce and Summers is director of the White House National Economic Council.]
benton.org/node/44991 | Wall Street Journal
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MORE RURAL BROADBAND FUNDING
[SOURCE: Department of Agriculture, AUTHOR: Press Release]
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced nearly $247.9 million in funding for telecommunications projects that will improve broadband service to rural residents and businesses in 11 states. This funding, which is part of the $690 million investment from USDA's Telecommunications Infrastructure Loan Program during fiscal year 2010, will finance over 16,000 miles of fiber to the home (FTTH), bringing high speed Internet service to rural areas. Administered by USDA's Rural Utilities Service (RUS), this infrastructure financing is in addition to the $3.5 billion in broadband funding RUS awarded for rural broadband projects under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. The telecommunications infrastructure program funds facilities and equipment for upgrades, expansion, maintenance, and replacement of rural networks. RUS funded approximately $537 million in FTTH projects during fiscal year 2010.
benton.org/node/44982 | Department of Agriculture
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BARRIERS TO ONLINE LEARNING
[SOURCE: eSchool News, AUTHOR: ]
Students must have reliable broadband access if they are to take advantage of 21st-century online education programs that can increase their access to educational opportunities, according to a new report from the US Distance Learning Association (USDLA). The report, Enabled by Broadband, Education Enters a New Frontier, highlights success and growth in online education programs across the country. It also outlines the need for increased broadband access and suggests policy measures to ensure that barriers to continued growth in online learning are removed. "Online learning ... is keeping students engaged and in school, especially at-risk youth who are able to overcome educational obstacles because of the flexible and exciting nature of distance learning," said John G. Flores, USDLA's executive director. "Students and lifelong learners are reaching their goals because of broadband technology applications."
benton.org/node/44963 | eSchool News | USDLA
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COLORADO BACKING CENTURYLINK-QWEST DEAL?
[SOURCE: xchange, AUTHOR: ]
CenturyLink Inc. and Qwest Communications International Inc say they now have support from the staff of the Colorado Public Utilities Commission (PUC) for the companies' proposed merger. PUC commissioners still must make the final call on the merger but staff agree it should be allowed. Of course, the PUC staff blessing didn't come without conditions. Once combined, CenturyLink and Qwest have committed to invest at least $70 million in broadband infrastructure in Colorado over five years. The deal mimics the requirements set forth by the state of Iowa for a CenturyLink-Qwest combo. CenturyLink and Qwest have received regulatory approval for their merger in 12 states and the District of Columbia. They're still waiting for OKs from nine more states, including Colorado, and the Federal Communications Commission.
benton.org/node/44955 | xchange
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AUSTRALIA'S PLAN FACES KEY VOTES
[SOURCE: Dow Jones, AUTHOR: Rachel Pannett]
Australia's plan to introduce a 43 billion Australian dollar (US$43 billion) national high-speed Internet network faces a key test next week with lawmakers in Canberra set to debate laws designed to boost competition in the telecommunications market that will allow the scheme to go ahead. The competition bill, scheduled for debate in the lower house Nov 15, underpins an A$11 billion nonbinding deal reached in June with the country's largest telecommunications company Telstra Corp. to help build the new state-run network, a key election pledge for Prime Minister Julia Gillard's minority center-left Labor government. Telstra Corp. Chief Executive David Thodey wants to finalize the deal by Dec. 20, so it can be put to the country's competition watchdog and Telstra shareholders for approval. The looming deadline heightens the urgency for Canberra to win over key lawmakers and pass the competition bill in the next fortnight before parliament breaks for a long summer hiatus Nov. 25. Australia's booming mining and commodities-fueled economy grates with its lack of development in terms of information technology infrastructure. The country ranks 13th among Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, or OECD, nations for high-speed Internet penetration. It is among the most expensive in the OECD for communications services, especially mobile broadband. In 2007, Australians spent an average US$1,600 a year on communications, a figure exceeded only by Switzerland and Iceland.
benton.org/node/44981 | Dow Jones
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PRIVACY
LESS PRIVACY, MORE SECURITY
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Simon Chesterman]
[Commentary] The European Union has announced that it will overhaul its data protection rules in 2011. Later this month, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission and Commerce Department will release their own reports on online privacy. Meanwhile, as part of the much-hyped efforts to prepare for "cyberwar," the U.S. National Security Agency is strengthening ties with organizations like Google and its efforts to mine social networking sites like Facebook. The dynamic is a familiar one. As usual, privacy will lose. Spying on foreigners has long been regarded as an unseemly but necessary enterprise. Spying on one's own citizens in a democracy, by contrast, has historically been subject to various forms of legal and political restraint. Three factors are driving the erosion of the distinction.
First, many of the threats facing modern democracies do not respect national borders. For the foreseeable future, the most significant threat of violence in countries like the United States will come from terrorists who do not have an obvious state sponsor. The targets of intelligence services will therefore be individuals rather than states.
The second factor is the revolution in technology and communications.
Third, changes in culture are progressively reducing the sphere of activity that citizens can reasonably expect to be kept from government eyes.
[Chesterman is director of the New York University School of Law Singapore Program]
benton.org/node/44980 | New York Times
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CARRIERS AND CUSTOMER DATA
[SOURCE: GigaOm, AUTHOR: Ryan Kim]
Wireless carriers, which have been sitting on a largely untouched goldmine of user data, may be poised to start tapping into their mother lode, according to Chris Dixon, CEO and co-founder of recommendation and personalization site Hunch. Dixon said he's been meeting with operators that are looking at deploying Hunch to help with recommendations and personalization. The list includes some Asian carriers but at least one major telecom in the U.S. For now, the partnership may start with recommendations for apps or ringtones. By combining Hunch's technology with their data, the carriers can position themselves to be more useful to users and avoid the dreaded fate of becoming a commodity providing undifferentiated network access. The carriers are thinking about pushing the edge beyond recommendations to see how they can start turning their records into revenue, Dixon said. "They don't want to be cut out by Android and Apple and become a dumb pipe," Dixon said. "They see more and more commoditization but they have tons and tons of data. They see Hunch as a way to use that data to be more relevant in the stack."
benton.org/node/44961 | GigaOm
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FACEBOOK AND GOOGLE BATTLE OVER YOUR DATA
[SOURCE: Slate, AUTHOR: Farhad Manjoo]
Facebook has long insisted that other sites should make it easy for their users to transfer data to their social networking profiles. But Facebook isn't big on reciprocity. Using both technical and legal maneuvers, Facebook unilaterally decides what data you can remove from the site, and where you're allowed to take it. Facebook, in other words, is a roach motel for your social graph -- your data checks in, but unless Mark Zuckerberg approves, it can never leave. This week, Facebook's one-way philosophy erupted into an ugly spat with its frenemy Google. The dispute began when Google added a clause to its terms of service that requires any application that accesses a Gmail address book to provide a reciprocal export feature for its users' contacts -- a clause designed specifically to force Facebook to make its own user data portable. Facebook decided it didn't want to do that; instead, it found a way around Google's new terms by creating a tool that extracted people's Gmail data through a Google feature that lets users download their contacts for their own use. This process is somewhat cumbersome, but it gives Facebook the same trove of data without having to abide by Google's new terms.
benton.org/node/44957 | Slate
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THE RIGHT TO BE FORGOTTEN
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: L Gordon Crovitz]
[Commentary] Privacy viewed in isolation looks more like a right than it does when seen in context. Any regulation to keep personal information confidential quickly runs up against other rights, such as free speech, and many privileges, from free Web search to free email. There are real trade-offs between privacy and speech. Censorship requires government limits on speech, at odds with the open ethos of the Web. It's also not clear how a right to be forgotten could be enforced. If someone writes facts about himself on Facebook that he later regrets, do we really want the government punishing those who use the information? UCLA law Prof. Eugene Volokh has explained why speech and privacy are often at odds. "The difficulty is that the right to information privacy -- the right to control other people's communication of personally identifiable information about you -- is a right to have the government stop people from speaking about you," he wrote in a law review article in 2000. One of the virtues of competitive markets is that companies vie for customers over everything from services to privacy protections. Regulators have no reason to dictate one right answer to these balancing acts among interests that consumers are fully capable of making for themselves.
benton.org/node/44989 | Wall Street Journal
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MEDIA OWNERSHIP
COMCAST-NBC DEAL REVIEW
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Amy Schatz, Thomas Catan, Jessica Vascellaro]
Federal regulators have stepped up their reviews of Comcast's deal to acquire control of NBC Universal in hopes of concluding them by the end of the year. Few observers expect either the Justice Department or the Federal Communications Commission to block outright the roughly $13.75 billion deal to purchase 51% of NBC Universal from General Electric Co. One reason: Because the two companies aren't direct competitors, it's harder to mount an antitrust challenge. Both agencies, however, are likely to impose significant conditions to prevent Comcast from withholding, or threatening to withhold, NBC Universal's programming from competitors, including companies that distribute TV shows and movies over the Internet, such as Apple and Netflix. The FCC is looking at all parts of Comcast and NBC Universal's combined online-video distribution chain for ways Comcast could promote content over its rivals. The agency is considering imposing a network neutrality condition on Comcast's Internet network, banning it from deliberately slowing or blocking legal traffic. FCC staff members are meeting twice a week with FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski about the deal and have set an internal deadline of circulating proposed conditions by mid-December. Earlier, the FCC review appeared to be on a January or early February timetable. Meanwhile, the Justice Department could announce its decision within weeks -- if Comcast accepts its proposed conditions. In particular, Justice Department antitrust officials want to ensure that distribution companies can't lock up content and stymie the development of the online-video market.
benton.org/node/44990 | Wall Street Journal | Washington Post
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FCC TALKS WITH IVI
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
The Federal Communications Commission sought out ivi TV CEO Todd Weaver to talk about the Comcast/NBCU merger's online content access implications. ivi contends that Comcast's "contractual roadblocks" in cable carriage deals prevent programmers from also streaming that content through ivi's online video site. ivi argues that those "roadblocks" have prevented it from building its business and "hampered the consumer's ability to obtain lower cost television programming." Weaver supplied a list of the cable channels he said had some kind of online exclusivity provisions in their Comcast contracts or were concerned about steps Comcast could take to disadvantage their channels if they struck online deals outside of the contract, or had trouble striking deals with Comcast. They included channels that already have a carriage bone to pick with the company over traditional carriage -- Tennis Channel and Wealth TV -- as well as the Documentary Channel, Univision, and Northwest Cable News.
benton.org/node/44978 | Broadcasting&Cable
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COMCAST AND MSNBC
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Sara Jerome]
Fox News host Bill O'Reilly said on his program last week that change is on to the way to MSNBC after Comcast merges with NBC Universal. Discussing perceived liberal bias in MSNBC's election coverage, O'Reilly seemed to suggest that Comcast would make the outlet less liberal. "Comcast takes over soon. I think they are going to change that whole thing over there. That's what we hear anyway," O'Reilly said.
benton.org/node/44951 | Hill, The
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COMCAST: GOOGLE TV INCOMPATIBLE
[SOURCE: Multichannel News, AUTHOR: Todd Spangler]
Comcast customers can't currently use a Google TV-based device to access authenticated programming on the company's TV Everywhere site -- but only because the Internet company's software is not compatible with the operator's video players, according to Comcast. Separately, the Hulu-supplied video available on Comcast's Fancast.com -- which is available free to any user -- is blocked to Google TV. That's because Hulu, which is owned by NBC Universal, News Corp. and Walt Disney Co., wants to negotiate a deal to offer Hulu Plus subscription service through broadband-connected TV devices. The current iteration of Comcast's Xfinity TV service uses a proprietary media player from Move Networks, the struggling startup in which Comcast is an investor. Over the next few months, Comcast will be migrating the authenticated Xfinity TV content to Microsoft's Silverlight media-delivery platform.
benton.org/node/44976 | Multichannel News
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MORE WOES FOR TRIBUNE
[SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: ]
Tribune Company creditors asked a Delaware judge to let them try to recover millions of dollars awarded to insiders in the year prior to the media company's bankruptcy, saying they can do a better job than Tribune can. Tribune's official committee of unsecured creditors said it wants current and former Tribune officers and directors to return more than $250 million of awards, including bonuses and restricted stock. The move escalates the battle over the future of Tribune. The committee also sought permission to pursue claims against Tribune's past owners or possible future owners. Among these are current owner Sam Zell and JPMorgan Chase & Co., one of his lenders.
benton.org/node/44974 | Reuters
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WIRELESS
BANDWIDTH HOGS AND PROFITS
[SOURCE: GigaOm, AUTHOR: Stacey Higginbotham]
[Commentary] Sound the alarm! More than 60 percent of mobile operators have congested networks, with one in five describing that congestion as severe, according to Amdoc, a provider of billing software for the mobile industry. Such survey results not only explain the dropped calls on certain networks. They also help feed the growing panic about spectrum shortages and justify pricing changes for mobile broadband that will eliminate unlimited plans. Unfortunately, bandwidth hogs and the network congestion they allegedly cause is a red herring designed to distract users from the real motive behind pricing changes: profits. Pricing, when done well, is an excellent opportunity to curb overuse of a network, especially on wireless networks with limited spectrum capacity and the current limitation on backhaul. However, instead of the pricing that operators such as AT&T have implemented (it offer two tiers for smartphone users, one at 200 MB per month and one at 2GB per month), more refined tiers and congestion pricing based on the time of day make more sense if the goal is to alleviate network bottlenecks. However, AT&T claims its pricing change is about value, as opposed to a tool to fight congestion. Instead of treating all bits the same as most current plans do, make mobile broadband more expensive during hours when the network is busiest, much like a utility does with electricity in some areas. Or make certain types of traffic, such as video streams more expensive.
benton.org/node/44960 | GigaOm
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LTE NOT MEETING DEMAND
[SOURCE: InformationWeek, AUTHOR: W David Gardner]
The explosive sales of tablets -- particularly the iPad -- and smartphones are putting pressure on many of the world's carrier networks. The result is that more robust LTE networks than anticipated will have to be deployed to meet the demand, according to reports by Infonetics Research. Based on surveys of service providers and manufacturers, the reports also found that "phone-based" smartphones aren't likely to make much of an impact for five years, with PC-based devices (laptops, netbooks, dongles, etc.) accounting for the lion's share of the LTE traffic. "The current mobile broadband device and phones market is increasingly driven by embedded devices and smartphones, with injections of growth coming from new touch screen form factors, such as the tablet, notably the Apple iPad, and e-readers like the Amazon Kindle," said Richard Webb, directing analyst of the market research firm's Mobile Devices practice. "As LTE rolls out, these trends will continue, with device competition intensifying around embedded devices and high-end smartphones."
benton.org/node/44959 | InformationWeek
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AT&T SETTLEMENT
[SOURCE: IDG News Service, AUTHOR: Stephen Lawson]
On Nov 11, AT&T Mobility notified its subscribers that they might be entitled to benefits from a proposed class-action settlement over alleged improper charging of Internet taxes. Subscribers sued AT&T earlier this year, saying the carrier charged them Internet taxes on their mobile service bills in violation of the federal Internet Tax Freedom Act and other laws. Suits in various courts were transferred to the US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, in Chicago. AT&T and the plaintiffs in the case, who represented a broad class of AT&T Mobility customers, reached a settlement agreement in July. The proposed settlement defines the class of plaintiffs as all AT&T Mobility customers who were charged Internet taxes on bills from Nov. 1, 2005, through Sept. 7, 2010. It does not specify how much a given subscriber might receive in benefits. AT&T did not admit wrongdoing. As part of the proposed deal, AT&T agreed to stop charging the taxes if the court approves the settlement.
benton.org/node/44956 | IDG News Service
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A 2ND BROADCAST SYSTEM?
[SOURCE: TVNewsCheck, AUTHOR: Harry Jessell]
[Commentary] Verizon Wireless CTO Tony Melone said that the carrier now believes that the best way of handling some of the expected demand for video on its new super-fast broadband network is broadcasting -- that is, pumping one signal to many users simultaneously rather than millions of signals one at a time. If Verizon Wireless is thinking this way, my bet is that some of its competitor and would-be competitors are too. There's an obvious alternative: A thousand TV stations pumping video to mobile devices should satisfy much of the demand for on-the-go video and relieve broadband networks of what may be an uneconomical chore.
benton.org/node/44967 | TVNewsCheck
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MEDIA & ELECTIONS
MONEY AND ELECTIONS
[SOURCE: The Nation, AUTHOR: John Nichols, Robert McChesney]
[Commentary] The most important story of the most expensive midterm election in American history is the radical transformation of our politics by a money-and-media election complex that is now more definitional than any candidate or party -- and that poses every bit as much of a threat to democracy as the military-industrial complex about which Dwight Eisenhower warned us a half-century ago. This is not the next chapter in the old money-and-politics debate. This is the redefinition of politics by a pair of new and equally important factors -- the freeing of corporations to spend any amount on electioneering and the collapse of substantive print and broadcast reporting on campaigns. In combination they have created a "new normal," in which consultants dealing in dollar amounts unprecedented in American history use "independent" expenditures to tip the balance of elections in favor of their clients. Unchecked by even rudimentary campaign finance regulation, unchallenged by a journalism sufficient to identify and expose abuses of the electoral process and abetted by commercial broadcasters that this year pocketed $3 billion in political ad revenues, the money-and-media election complex was a nearly unbeatable force in 2010.
benton.org/node/44954 | Nation, The
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HEALTH
CELL PHONE HEALTH CONCERNS
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Randall Stross]
[Commentary] Warning: Holding a cellphone against your ear may be hazardous to your health. So may stuffing it in a pocket against your body. The legal departments of cellphone manufacturers slip a warning about holding the phone against your head or body into the fine print of the little slip that you toss aside when unpacking your phone. Apple, for example, doesn't want iPhones to come closer than 5/8 of an inch; Research In Motion, BlackBerry's manufacturer, is still more cautious: keep a distance of about an inch. The warnings may be missed by an awful lot of customers. The United States has 292 million wireless numbers in use, approaching one for every adult and child, according to CTIA-The Wireless Association, the cellphone industry's primary trade group. It says that as of June, about a quarter of domestic households were wireless-only. If health issues arise from ordinary use of this hardware, it would affect not just many customers but also a huge industry. Our voice calls -- we chat on our cellphones 2.26 trillion minutes annually, according to the CTIA -- generate $109 billion for the wireless carriers. Henry Lai, a research professor in the bioengineering department at the University of Washington, began laboratory radiation studies in 1980 and found that rats exposed to radiofrequency radiation had damaged brain DNA. He maintains a database that holds 400 scientific papers on possible biological effects of radiation from wireless communication. He found that 28 percent of studies with cellphone industry funding showed some sort of effect, while 67 percent of studies without such funding did so. "That's not trivial," he said.
benton.org/node/44987 | New York Times
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CONTROL OVER HEAL INFO
[SOURCE: HealthcareITNews, AUTHOR: Mike Miliard]
Patient Privacy Rights, the health privacy watchdog, has enlisted the help of Zogby International to conduct an online survey of more than 2,000 adults to identify their views on privacy, access to health information, and healthcare IT. The results were overwhelmingly in favor of individual choice and control over personal health information. Ninety-seven percent of Americans believe that doctors, hospitals, labs and health technology systems should not be allowed to share or sell their sensitive health information without consent. The poll also found strong opposition to insurance companies gaining access to electronic health records without permission. Ninety-eight percent of respondents opposed payers sharing or selling health information without consent.
benton.org/node/44986 | HealthcareITNews | read the poll
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MOBILE HEALTH
[SOURCE: The Economist, AUTHOR: ]
Evidence of mobile health's (m-health) usefulness is at last starting to trickle in. A study in the Lancet, a medical journal, shows that something as simple as sending text messages to remind Kenyan patients to take their HIV drugs properly improved adherence to the therapy by 12%. WellDoc, an American firm, found in a recent trial that an m-health scheme that relies on behavioral psychology to give diabetics advice on managing their ailment has more effect than putting them on the leading diabetes drug. Another reason to think that m-health has a promising future is the flurry of business interest in it. One push comes from the rise of cloud computing (providing data storage and processing over the Internet), which Peter Neupert of Microsoft argues will be "transformative" for wireless health. UltraLinq, an American start-up, uses the cloud to offer medical imaging on the software-as-a-service model. AT&T, a telecoms giant that already collects revenues of $4 billion a year from health care, has just created a division devoted to pursuing wireless health-care business using cloud computing. A second shove will come from American policy, which will dispense more than $30 billion in subsidies over the next few years to encourage doctors and hospitals to adopt electronic medical records. This coming digitization of America's disgracefully paper-based health system will, argues Todd Park of the Department of Health, inevitably boost m-health. A further impetus is likely to be provided by ideas bubbling up from developing countries. Victoria Hausman of Dalberg, a development consultancy, has surveyed dozens of m-health business models in Haiti, India and Kenya in work for the World Bank. She predicts that mobile banking, which has already taken off in Kenya, will be a great enabler of m-health. Firms are coming up with ways for patients to pay doctors, receive subsidy vouchers and so on, using their phones.
benton.org/node/44953 | Economist, The
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HIT AND VETERANS
[SOURCE: Globe and Mail, AUTHOR: Rod Mickleburgh]
A Q&A with Ken Kizer, dubbed here as the miracle man of US health care. He brought in bold reform that transformed the vast and woeful Veterans Health Administration into an efficient, effective model institution with sky-high patient satisfaction. Starting in 1994, it took him five years to reduce costs and increase quality of care, while nearly doubling the number of patients. Key to the VHA's stunning improvement was the implementation of easily accessible electronic health records (EHRs). Of EHRs, Kizer says, "It allows you to have all the information you need when you're actually face to face with the patient. It allows you to track and monitor performance and what should be done. Instead of sitting there and reciting a bunch of numbers to a patient, you can show them a single colored graph that shows for a diabetic, say all their hemoglobin A1c readings for the last three years. And so much more. It changes the dialogue. It changes the way health care is provided."
benton.org/node/44952 | Globe and Mail
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