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Rural Health
Resources by Topic: Broadband

About a Quarter of Rural Americans Say Access to High-Speed Internet Is a Major Problem
Shares the views of rural residents describing their access to high speed internet and the scope of the problem. Includes information on internet use, smartphone ownership, and home broadband by rurality.
Author(s): Monica Anderson
Date: 09/2018
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Pew Research Center
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Are You Connected?
Bar chart showing household broadband subscription rates in nonmetropolitan and metropolitan areas by region.
Date: 09/2018
Type: Chart/Graph
Sponsoring organization: U.S. Census Bureau
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USDA Road Trip Through Rural America: Q&A with Anne Hazlett
An interview with USDA Assistant to the Secretary for Rural Development Anne Hazlett. Hazlett discusses the role USDA programs play in addressing rural health-related concerns such as broadband access and shares what she has learned from a series of rural roundtables focused on opioid misuse.
Author(s): Kay Miller Temple
Citation: Rural Monitor
Date: 08/2018
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Rural Health Information Hub
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Realizing the Benefits of Rural Broadband: Challenges and Solutions
Presents the U.S. House of Representatives Energy and Commerce Committee hearing on the benefits, challenges, and solutions to rural broadband issues. Features testimony from an Associate Administrator and Chief Nursing Officer at Wallowa Memorial Hospital, a 25-bed Critical Access Hospital (CAH) in Enterprise, Oregon, on the role broadband plays in healthcare access via telehealth to rural and frontier areas.
Additional links: Jenni Word Testimony
Date: 07/2018
Type: Video/Multimedia
Sponsoring organizations: House Committee on Energy and Commerce, Subcommittee on Communications and Technology
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Investing in Rural America: Bringing Progress and Economic Opportunity to Rural Communities
Provides an overview of the state of the rural economy, as well as policy proposals to revitalize rural communities. Chapter 4 covers rural infrastructure, including broadband, and chapter 7 discusses access to affordable healthcare in rural areas.
Date: 06/2018
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: U.S. Congress Joint Economic Committee Democrats
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The Future of Rural Transportation and Mobility for Older Adults: Current Trends and Future Directions in Technology-enabled Solutions
Focuses on transformation of mobility for older adults in rural areas through innovation in transportation solutions. Describes how mobility restrictions are a social determinant of health, and the ways in which this can adversely impact health and independence for older rural people.
Author(s): Andrew Broderick
Date: 04/2018
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Grantmakers In Aging
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Remarks of Commissioner Mignon Clyburn (as prepared): National Rural Health Association
Statement given at the February 2018 National Rural Health Association (NRHA) Policy Institute. Discusses the goals of the Connect2Health Task Force: to understand the future interplay of broadband, technology, and health policy and to ensure the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) stays ahead of the innovation curve. Highlights the FCC's focus of broadband deployment to provide a foundation for health and describes a broadband-enabled project in Appalachian Kentucky created to provide healthcare services to cancer patients.
Author(s): Mignon Clyburn
Date: 02/2018
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Federal Communications Commission
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Creating Connections What Broadband Means for Rural America
Offers articles on the challenges of providing broadband access in rural areas, federal policy options, and other local stakeholders working on solutions to build and strengthen rural communities. Includes discussion on how Garrett County, Maryland successfully expanded broadband access, and how tribes are building infrastructure to provide broadband access for their members.
Citation: Rural Voices, 22(2)
Date: 2018
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Housing Assistance Council
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Rural Aging in America: Proceedings of the 2017 Connectivity Summit
Summarizes discussions from the 2017 Connectivity Summit on rural aging in the U.S. Covers social connections, access to health resources, and innovative approaches to improve care and deliver programs to the rural elderly. Includes recommendations for stakeholders to improve collaboration and work to improve the health of aging rural residents.
Author(s): Alexis Skoufalos, Janice L. Clarke, Dana Rose Ellis, Vicki L. Shepard, Elizabeth Y. Rula
Citation: Population Health Management, 20(Suppl 2), S-1-S-10
Date: 12/2017
Type: Document
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Emerging Strategies to Ensure Access to Health Care Services: Virtual Care Strategies
Discusses opportunities to use telehealth to improve healthcare access and delivery to vulnerable rural and urban communities. Includes recommendations from the American Hospital Association Task Force on Ensuring Access in Vulnerable Communities and details the benefits of telehealth services and potential policy solutions such as reimbursement, interaction of state and federal laws, broadband access, and federal research.
Date: 11/2017
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: American Hospital Association
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