Exploring America’s Broadband Problem & What it means for Telehealth

Even as telehealth adoption and utilization soared amid the in-person care restrictions of the COVID-19 pandemic, it quickly became apparent that expanding telehealth access equitably is easier said than done.The public health emergency (PHE) threw into sharp relief the disparities in the digital healthcare arena, from income and housing insecurity to race and age-related barriers. As researchers delved into the various social determinants of health (SDOH) hurdles hindering virtual care, a particularly trenchant one emerged: lack of broadband access.Broadband, or high-speed internet, allows people to access the internet at significantly higher speeds than dial-up services, according to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). The high speed is facilitated through various digital transmission technologies that move text, images, and sound as “bits” of data. These include digital subscriber lines (DSL), cable modems, fiber, wireless, and satellite technologies.