VITAL SIGNS VIA BROADBAND: - Broadband Illinois

ForewordMembers:AT&TCenter for AmericanProgressCommittee forEconomic DevelopmentCommunicationWorkers of AmericaEmbarqGeneral MillsIntelKelly ServicesLULACManpowerQwestService EmployeesInternational UnionWal‐MartBetter Health Care Together (www.betterhealthcaretogether.org) is acoalition of business, labor, and public policy leaders who share theconviction that broad‐based health care reform is among the most pressingeconomic and moral imperatives facing the United States. We are workingtoward reform that will put a new American health care system in place nolater than 2012.Our effort is guided by four common sense principles for a new health caresystem.1. We believe every person in America must have quality,affordable health insurance coverage.2. We believe individuals have a responsibility to maintainand protect their health.3. We believe that America must dramatically improve thevalue it receives for every health care dollar.4. We believe that businesses, governments, and individualsall should contribute to managing and financing a newAmerican health care system.As part of that effort, Better Health Care Together is promoting publicdiscussion of promising new directions such as the use of informationtechnology to deliver some health care services through telemedicineapplications that can unite patient and caregiver when in person service isimpossible or unnecessary.In that spirit, we are pleased to present Dr. Robert Litan’s study Vital Signsvia Broadband: Remote Health Monitoring Transmits Savings, EnhancesLives. This research illustrates the potential benefits of remote monitoring toimprove health care outcomes for those with chronic diseases while alsosignificantly reducing costs to the U.S. health care system. We believe it alsodemonstrates the need to take a holistic view of our health care challengesand to draw from a range of fields, including communications technology, aswe build a better health care system.