FCC Commissioner touts telehealth, connectivity

FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn said Thursday that telehealth plays a huge role in helping treat diabetes and other diseases in rural America.

“What we have found is if you integrate technology properly,” she said, “these chronic health outcomes that seem to be accepted as a norm can be short-circuited with technology.”

On Thursday, she visited the University of Mississippi Medical Center, getting an update on its Diabetes Telehealth Network.

When she visited before in December 2014, she met two women suffering from diabetes who were part of the pilot project in the Mississippi Delta.

“They didn’t think about how empowering the internet could be for them,” she said. “They’re able to interact with a medical professional 24-7.”

As a result, those women began to experience “a better quality of life and no hospitalizations in a very short time,” she said. “This shows the power of connectivity.”

The program also means saving hundreds of thousands of dollars in medical costs, she said.

More than 12 percent of Mississippians suffer from Type 2 diabetes, and predictions are that a third of the state’s population might have the disease by 2030.

RELATED: Templeton: Telehealth is boon for rural Mississippi

UMMC had hoped to relocate its Center for Telehealth on the property where the former McRae’s Department Store was located on Meadowbrook Road.

Developers had promised more than 67,000 square feet of space for the center, plus four generators for backup electricity.

That deal fell through in March, and UMMC officials said Thursday they are moving closer to a deal to lease a different off-campus space for the Center for Telehealth.

RELATED: UMMC seeks new location for telehealth center

Last year, the FCC concluded that broadband internet was a critical public utility for Americans.

Now the agency is providing up to $2.25 billion in subsidies to help ensure the poor can be connected to the internet.

“Five million Americans have no dial tone, and most don’t have it because they can’t afford,” Clyburn said. They’re the ones that keep rooms clean and work at fast-food restaurants.”

The FCC's Lifeline program would provide a $9.25 a month subsidy for the poor for broadband, telephone and-or mobile services.

“No one wants to be sick,” Clyburn said. “No one wants to be an amputee.”

Technology holds the key to help curb such health woes, she said.

“You meet people where they are,” she said. “That is making all the difference in the world, in communities, in Ruleville, Mississippi, and beyond.”

Contact Jerry Mitchell at jmitchell@jackson.gannett.com or (601) 961-7064. Follow @jmitchellnews on Twitter.