Net Neutrality and how it affects Healthcare Providers

What is Net Neutrality? Why are we talking about it in a healthcare context?

Well, the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington D.C. rejected the FCC’sopen internet rules, making way for cable companies to give some broadcast companies and video streaming services preferential treatment.The 2010 Federal Communications Act forced companies like Comcast and Verizon to treat all video streaming equally. Net neutrality puts users in control Services succeed or fail based on what users like and, until now, Youtube, Netflix & Hulu didn’t have to worry about striking a deal with the internet service providers.

The ruling will be bad for cord cutters, especially if they get their broadband from a cable company. If Net Neutrality is eroded, then what will it mean for healthcare’s broadband’s requirements for telemedicine capablities?

The middle seat view of Healthcare IT

As my plane backs up and heads home,  I reflect on my past week working for a Healthcare provider organization in another state. It’s been a while since I was on the road for work and I’m not as young and nimble as I used to be, but I know that I know that much more since I last was traveling some years ago. Meeting new people both in Operations and IT and getting to understand their organizational culture and dynamics is one of my initial objectives. Another is remembering many people’s names and the responsibilities they have. What is the scope of each person’s work effort,  where are they located,  what is the best way to interact with them?

Each organization has their own set of rules and regulations and one needs to try and understand what they are so as to not rub them the wrong way.

Ok,  so by now you’re wondering why I called this blog post what I did.  First of all,  I’m sitting in the window seat. As I was boarding and sat down in my seat and when I needed to get something out of my laptop bag,  I had to dive down and in the process,  the gentleman who sat in the middle seat had to maneuver to not get an elbow in his face. I apologized and he said…well, “you know, it’s life in the middle seat”. We talked about what each does and I tried to impress upon him the work that all healthcare provider organizations had done in recent years and the resurgence of healthcare IT and technology oriented life of a physician and patient.  I also met an individual earlier that same afternoon who had been to an orthopedic surgeon’s conference and as we were chatting about the long security lines,  we discussed my favorite topic of empathy in healthcare.  James from North Dakota,  success be with you and the patients in your community. Sounds like you already have what it takes to be great. Hopefully our discussion helped a little. (The picture above was taken at Houston airport and was very inspiring.  I wanted to share it with my readers.)