Source
Automatically imported from: http://commons.somewhere.com:80/rre/1997/FCC.and.telehealth.html
Content
This web service brought to you by Somewhere.Com, LLC.
FCC and "telehealth"
``` [These proposals raise significant privacy issues. One major purpose of standardization is to facilitate the rapid movement of medical records. This is obviously sometimes a good thing, but legal safeguards are nearly nonexistent.]
---
This message was forwarded through the Red Rock Eater News Service (RRE). Send any replies to the original author, listed in the From: field below. You are welcome to send the message along to others but please do not use the "redirect" command. For information on RRE, including instructions for (un)subscribing, send an empty message to rre-help@weber.ucsd.edu
---
Date: Tue, 10 Jun 1997 17:59:06 -0400 (EDT)
From: Aaron Goldstein
http://www.hostnet.org FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE May 28, 1997
CONTACT: Aaron Goldstein, 202/434-4771
HOST CONSORTIUM AND FCC, IN COLLABORATION WITH FDA, DHHS AND JWGT, TO CONVENE MEETING TO PROMOTE STANDARDS IN TELEHEALTH
WASHINGTON, D.C. - The HOST consortium and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) will bring together members of standards developing organizations, relevant government agencies, vendors, and healthcare providers to promote standards for open-architecture healthcare systems. Collaborators include the Food & Drug Administration (FDA), the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Women's Health and the Federal Interagency Joint Working Group on Telemedicine (JWGT). The meeting will be held at the Washington headquarters of the FCC this July 17.
HOST Executive Director, Lewis Lorton, said, "the lack of standards-driven plug-and-play technology is an enormous barrier to cost-effective telehealth solutions. Since HOST was created to promote the deployment of open-architecture healthcare systems and the FCC wants to encourage the adoption of standards in general, our cooperation makes a lot of sense."
The FCC's Advisory Committee on Telecommunications and Health Care stated in its October 15, 1996 report Findings and Recommendations, that the lack of standards and the resulting incompatibility of telehealth systems is an obstacle to progress in telehealth. The Committee suggested that the government bring together members of industry and the medical community to work toward the adoption of standards and open architecture of equipment and networks.
FCC chairman Reed Hundt, who will give the keynote address, said "the FCC wants to work on one of the barriers to telehealth's expansion highlighted by our Advisory Committee: A lack of equipment standards and the resulting incompatibility of telehealth systems. This forum will help the FCC to further the goal set by Congress of increasing Americans' access to healthcare through the promotion of telehealth services."
Presentations will focus on specific obstacles to the diffusion of telehealth, which can be minimized by standards development and application. Breakout groups, moderated by technical and medical content experts, will discuss specific problem areas, defining needed development and action.
Manufacturers and vendors of telehealth equipment, healthcare providers and
telehealth providers, governmental agencies, and the general public will be
invited to attend this meeting. Further information and registration
materials are posted on the HOST web site at
HOST is a nonprofit consortium enabling healthcare through better information technology. It has a broad-based international membership ranging from Fortune 500 corporations to Department of Energy National Laboratories and university medical centers to small consulting firms. Based in Washington, D.C., HOST has a variety of innovative projects including cooperative research agreements with NIST, an "Open Systems Laboratory" and HOST Trial Sites.
### ```
This web service brought to you by Somewhere.Com, LLC.