1REMARKS OF FCC CHAIRMAN TOM WHEELER
AS PREPARED FOR DELIVERY
FCC-MAYO CLINIC BROADBAND HEALTH SUMMIT
JACKSONVILLE, FLORIDA
OCTOBER 1, 2015
Thank you, Commission Clyburn, for that warm welcome and for your 
leadership on the Commission’s digital health efforts. 
Special thanks to our host and the co-sponsor of today’s event – The Mayo 
Clinic.
In particular, I’d like to recognize Mayo’s national Director of Connected 
Care, Dr. Steve Ommen, for joining us today. 
Also, thanks to Florida State Representative Mia Jones for her participation 
today and her work on these issues.
Finally, thank you all for joining us today.
As I am wont to do, I’d like to start with a quick history lesson.
We all know that the telephone was invented by Alexander Graham Bell. 
But who were the early adopters?
The first commercial telephone exchange was established in 1877 in 
Hartford, Connecticut. The first customers were 21 local doctors who wanted a 
link to the Capital Avenue Drugstore.
In 1879, Rochester, Minnesota got its first phone line, connecting the 
drugstore downtown to the farmhouse of Doctor William Worrall Mayo. I wonder 
whatever happened to that guy. 
In the early 20
th
century, one doctor’s manual said the telephone had become 
as necessary to physicians as the stethoscope. 
The lesson is that our networks have been a defining force throughout 
history, changing the way we live and re-shaping industries – including healthcare. 
Today’s broadband networks – wired and wireless – have the potential to 
revolutionize healthcare like no technology before. 
Just yesterday, I was at the Nicklaus Children’s Hospital in Miami. This is a 
remarkable facility, and I’m not just saying that because it was founded by Jack 
Nicklaus.  When I was growing up in Columbus, Ohio, the Nicklaus Pharmacy was 
on the same street where I lived.  I followed Jack Nicklaus in high school, and we 
both attended THE Ohio State University. We visited their telehealth command 
center, and I saw first-hand the tools available today that allow hospitals to connect 
to patients around the community, around the state, and around the world. Sitting 
in Miami, we spoke with a speech therapist in the Florida Keys and saw how high-
quality images could be sent between sites in order to allow for accurate diagnoses. 
2Later in the day, we visited a Florida Blue retail center, where I saw a 
demonstration of a Healthspot kiosk – a relatively simple tool that makes basic 
care more accessible. Without going to a healthcare facility per se, consumers are 
able to access healthcare services remotely.
Step back and look more broadly at leading trends and you get a sense of the 
tremendous impact broadband-enabled solutions hold for healthcare.
Most of you are familiar with the term Big Data. This refers to our ability to 
collect unprecedented amounts of information and the use of computers to analyze 
and learn from this data. My physician is fond of saying that medicine is all about 
the collection and use of data.  Big data expands that reality to an amazing degree.  
It can empower individuals to play a more active role in their health care and make 
smarter choices; it can help caregivers coordinate and provide the best treatment; it 
can help advance medicine and boost the productivity of R&D. One analysis by 
McKinsey estimates that Big Data analytics and the innovations it enables could 
improve health outcomes and unlock more than $300 billion annually in reduced 
healthcare spending. 
But here’s the point. Those McKinsey numbers are projections, not reality.
When we talk about the power of broadband-enabled technologies to improve the 
quality of healthcare in America, we are not where we can be; we are not where we 
need to be. 
Noted tech-sector analyst Mary Meeker puts out an annual review of the 
latest Internet trends. In this year’s report, she had a slide to illustrate how the 
impact of the Internet is in many ways just beginning. She listed sectors of our 
economy and society and ranked them according to the Internet’s impact. At the 
bottom of the list – along with government – was the healthcare industry. 
Our collective challenge is how do we seize the opportunities of broadband 
communications to improve the quality of healthcare, save lives, and lower costs?
It starts with making sure that we have fast, fair, and open broadband 
networks available to all Americans.
To that end, we’ve seen significant progress in recent years. Since 2009, 
nearly 45 million Americans have adopted broadband, and 84 percent of 
Americans now use the Internet, up from 76 percent 5 years ago. 
Since 2009, private companies have invested more than $420 billion in 
wired and wireless networks, included $78 billion last year. Ultra-high speed 
gigabit networks are being rolled out across the country, and while other countries 
are just beginning to deploy 4G wireless networks at scale, more than 98 percent of 
Americans have access to LTE mobile broadband.
Earlier this year, the FCC adopted strong net neutrality protections to 
preserve the Internet as an open platform, where innovators and entrepreneurs can 
develop new healthcare innovations without having to ask anyone’s permission. 
3But an open Internet and faster networks are not sufficient to assure the 
development and widespread adoption of digital health solutions. We at the FCC 
must stay engaged with providers and the healthcare system but also consumers,
caregivers, and other key stakeholders in the health space so that we can best 
understand all the challenges that must be overcome, the infrastructure needs that 
exist, and, most importantly, the opportunities that broadband might be able to 
support in the health space.
As has been the case in other sectors, it may be that within the health sector 
those who stay on top will be the ones who embrace the change and, in some cases,
even help to lead the innovation. Today, I would like to engage you in a 
discussion on how can your industry stay on top and what these changes may mean 
for your consumers.
As a former investor, I understand that capital, financing, privacy, and 
security are key issues that must be addressed before new digital solutions are 
widely deployed. But what about issues beyond these?  This is where I would like 
to focus and hear your perspectives today.
Doctors led the way in the adoption of the new telephone network more than 
a century ago. I expect leaders of the healthcare industry to step up once more and 
embrace the potential of our new broadband networks to be higher-quality, more 
efficient, cost-effective care to more Americans. 
Thank you, and I look forward to today’s discussion.