Saturday, November 17, 2012

Clinton Health Matters Initiative Expands Telemedicine with Verizon's Help

by Holly Shoemaker

Former President Bill Clinton announced this week, the Clinton Health Matters Initiative, a partnership with General Electric (GE), Tenet Healthcare and Verizon Communications to promote healthy lifestyles and medical assistance to undeserved areas in the United States.

The Clinton Health Matters Initiative is designed to address “global health crises and the childhood obesity epidemic,” according to Clinton. It works by putting systems into place to support medical professionals and those in need of healthcare outreach.

Verizon provides the technology component. The company will support wireless networks and other technologies for patients. In particular, the company supports a technology that allows patients to take their vital signs at home and send them to their physicians. Doctors will also have the ability to assist patients with chronic diseases. Verizon has a system in place to notify doctors when patients suffering from a chronic disease need medical help. Rural areas will also receive needed connectivity to bring specialist expertise to them.

The foundation will start its work in California’s Coachella Valley and target forgotten desert communications and in greater Little Rock, Ark, which comes as no surprise. From there, the project will expand.

Concluding Thoughts 

The initiative is an extension of telemedicine. Without telemedicine, we would not be discussing how medical mobile apps, smartphones and tablets work together to change healthcare. These tools, along with video conferencing, allow underprivileged people and those without insurance access to specialists they would not have. The Clinton Health Matters Initiative supports the expansion of telemedicine and shows developers ways to keep expanding the field.

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