The technology sector and the health sector of every country have always been working with a bonding bridge for several decades. Modern-day communication technologies and electronic hardware have made Telehealth consultations possible. Telehealth is not only about digital consultation in long distances but it also holds other perspectives like the health connected education and awareness of the administration.

 Patient monitoring over huge distances has been possible due to Telehealth initiatives. The technologies employed in Telehealth primarily are functional due to the strong internet over the wired and wireless connections allowing dependable video conferences, storing and forwarding imagings and also streaming types of media. Telehealth differs from telemedicine essentially in its wide reach. A much bigger space of remote healthcare is reached by the Telehealth policies and as it can cover both clinical and non-clinical services. 

The telehealth system is slowly proving its model to be highly beneficial and can cut budgets and health costs at the right places for making a more balanced health department. The concept of community broadband has amazingly blended and helped the Telehealth practices to get realized in severely remote locations as well.

 The community broadband refers to the different kinds of communication mediums and networks owned by remotely located towns or counties.  The community broadbands host their own telephone connectivity, wireless internet services, wired network services, local ISPs and also several Access points which are often maintained by public and private firm partnerships. 

These community broadbands are mostly taken up by the local government counties and municipalities for improvement of the slightly remote communities lacking in healthcare facilities. The community broadband does bring financial advantages along with a balance of health and lifestyle. 

The Community Broadband Telehealth categories and the public venues 

The trend of community broadbands are noticeably spreading globally and finally, the people who lacked health services are receiving it through Telehealth facilities. Many times it has been observed that the large network providing companies not only have unaffordable price tags for remote community members but even after that offer a limited service with low power hardware infrastructure in the regions. 

Many large companies also show unwillingness in extending their services to certain counties and regions. Due to these reasons, the community broadband concept is being successful for every implementation. The doctors have full reach and setup to provide excellent consultation via the modern amalgamation of Telehealth and community broadband. It is much impossible to have telehealth services without proper functioning broadband.

The doctors do have many similar opportunities in Telehealth like in face to face clinical diagnosis and treatment. In Telehealth communications the doctor can:

• Monitor patient condition.
• Make the initial diagnosis of a person.
• Record any data of the patients.
• Provide crucial medical intervention.
• Administer a medical process.
• Report on the continuum of care.

As already mentioned, one of the prime Telehealth categories of functionality is Forwarding and Storing in Telehealth. The forwarding and sending refers to the process of collecting data and medical analytics in a platform and then either storing it in a dedicated cloud memory or forwarding the same to a different platform where all the data can be easily checked later on. 

When going through these medical records or data the doctor might have some questions and only offer a diagnosis after it has been answered one on one by the patient. For these situations in remote counties or regions, community broadband can be used from a public access point like the library. 

For several observing or monitoring cases, a real-time Telehealth system is required which should be able to transmit live changes or data from the patient’s end to the doctor’s electronic device. As being a matter of medical health the broadband needs to be much more reliable and efficient. 

It is possible to create isolation pods or small rooms in public libraries or community halls where this kind of service will be easily accessible by the people living in the network lacking regions. The secure and private Telehealth sessions happening in real-time will be a great change in the health dynamics of the specific state or town. 

Another Telehealth category that should be given high importance is the Passive health system. The sector of passive health deals with having valid storage of wellness and health digital content, having access to databases of medical knowledge and also the presence of software applications.

 The medical-based software applications would help in gathering the basic knowledge about certain preventions, recovery steps and apply basic self-treatment if required. Due to the video clip availability patients can listen to the doctor’s advice more than once and understand the diagnosis much better.

When the Telehealth facilities of a town or county is being setup in a public venue like a library then the local health organization and the medical equipment providers should work closely in order to build a Telehealth system that will be able to provide services feasibly. Enough bandwidth should be present to provide telehealth services to multiple people at the same time. 

Whenever the possibility of multiple video interactions comes that might need to occur at the same time then it calls for an enterprise-grade network. The other features of the community bandwidth that should be checked is that whether the network has the same upload and download speed or not and the speed should also be tested periodically.

The modern changes that needs to be considered for Telehealth and Community bandwidth to have a better relationship

To further develop the Telehealth possibilities in the remote counties and towns it is needed to provide utmost respect to Telehealth’s partnership with the community broadband. The goal should be to make the overall public health of a county or region become much better in numbers and statistics by the use of Telehealth via Community broadband. There are certain practical ways in which it can done and they are mentioned in brief details below:

• Making more telehealth pockets in certain routes– There are many roadways or highways where there isn’t any kind of healthcare centres or hospitals for several kilometres. If some makeshift Telehealth centres could be setup in these spots it would work wonders in saving a person’s life. The locations don’t need to be dedicated Telehealth centres, instead, they can just have the facility to be utilized in case of emergencies.

 In case of a vehicle breakdown or natural calamity, people do often get stuck at certain points and look for medical consultation. Sometimes when a patient is being transported from one location to another in an ambulance a Telehealth location can prove to be lifesaving if the patient’s condition gets worse or a complication arises which only a doctor can handle. 

• Making a Telehealth out of other establishments– When analyzed by the requirement perspectives of a Telehealth location it can be understood that nearly any store, garage, shop or stand-alone library can be used as a Telehealth location. If the room has enough space and is hygienic then it can be turned into a Telehealth location along with a high-quality broadband facility. If there is a person present with healthcare knowledge then it would be an additional benefit. 

• Using Telehealth wonderfully to treat mental health– The Telehealth facilities are considered to be much more efficient and successful for mental health treatment and consultation. As per the statistics of the United Health Foundation in the US, it’s evident that there is a lack of mental health treatment providers as per the number of people suffering from mental problems.

 As the ratio is very alarming, the Telehealth facilities should be given more priority. The large network companies which fail to provide reliable broadband connections in remote locations leave no choice except to develop a community broadband that would provide seamless and non-buffering mental health consultations to all the people.

• Providing a better healthcare facility to senior citizens by Telehealth– The age group which can most benefit from the Telehealth facilities are the senior citizens. The ideal form of Telehealth facilities allows the senior citizens to always receive diagnosis, checkups and record analysis through the Telehealth mediums and proper community broadband connection. 

This eradicates the necessity for often visiting the hospital and staying in a place where the senior citizens might feel extra discomfort due to age. Due to the advanced medical technologies, it is also possible to get data on the patients health with the help of many sensors. So no medical executive has to visit the elder citizen. 

• The Telehealth centres act as a backup with emergency broadband–  The community broadband might not always have to be setup in a premium large scale size and in a conventional way. Some permanent wireless broadband access points can be created in several positions of the town or county from where the maximum area can be covered to serve the makeshift Telehealth centres. 

These Telehealth centres would work as other models like stores, libraries and garages but they would also have the necessary setup to provide Telehealth service when required. A community wireless internet protocol also needs to be setup which would be selling a broadband connection to the region. Having the essential resources for Telehealth facilities except the broadband should also be looked after by the government.

End note of wisdom

For making some crucial progress with the Community broadband and the Telehealth services there needs to be a lot of support from the community and the local government authorities. So sufficient proportion of awareness among the citizens of the region is important. 

The local doctors and the clinics present should work as the front liners in this Telehealth awareness as well. The facilities and impact of the joint force between Community wisdom and Telehealth should be promoted where it has already been implemented. The campaign can be initiated by anyone and would go a long way for community health.