1Prepared Welcoming Remarks of FCC Commissioner Mignon L. Clyburn The Wireless Foundation to Highlight Mobile Health and Wellness Expo Washington, D.C. November 3, 2015 (as prepared for delivery) Thank you Mrs. Baker, for that kind introduction and good morning everyone! I also want to thank the staff and members of CTIA for taking part in this important mHealth event -- demonstrating apps, devices, tools, and other innovative ways that wireless technology is making access to healthcare, more available to people at any time, from anywhere. For years, we have watched in amazement just how far and wide wireless technologies and broadband have influenced our cultural mores, but today, we will see that we have only scratched the surface when connectivity and our health care delivery system are integrated. Innovative technologies and wireless broadband are completely changing when, how, and where medical care takes place allowing more care to and from the most remote of places and to and from the most advanced clinical epicenters. Glaring health disparities still exist in America which is one reason why the Commission has taken a three pronged approach. First, our Universal Service policies help to connect communities that are unserved or underserved by broadband. Second, we have allocated spectrum bands for new medical services such as Medical Body Area Networks, which help to monitor patients as they recover, and medical micro power networks, which are used to activate and monitor nerves and muscles. And third, we are working to improve collaboration among the relevant federal agencies, commercial wireless industry, and other stakeholders. Federal partners like the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT, the National Institutes of Health, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Veterans Health Administration, and the Food and Drug Administration must share information and resources in this area in order to help the industry receive consistent guidance and promote efficient development of products that comply with necessary rules but also speed products to market. Just as we need better coordination among government agencies, we must have better collaboration among technology companies and those who they seek to serve through their technologies. In sum, a closer collaboration between the developers of mHealth solutions and their intended users will yield not only more useful and accessible apps but also opportunities for innovation in the areas of greatest need. The FCC launched the Connect2Health Task Force to explore this intersection of broadband, advanced technologies, and health. The key here is connectivity – ensuring that every person has access to care that allows them to get and stay healthy regardless of race, gender, geography, or socioeconomic background. At the beginning of last week, I was at the Cleveland Clinic’s Medical Innovation Summit, where I extolled the virtues of technology and made a point of saying that it is not just about the devices or the apps. Mobile health is about the individual, the consumer, the patient. It’s about how technology is meeting the needs and improving the lives of people. The real power of connectivity, to borrow a thought from the Chairman’s book, is in what it enables in health. We should view connectivity as disruptive and transformative not just as a tool that may only bring limited and incremental benefits. A connected system of devices and sensors could use machine learning and other analytic tools to identify patterns of that puffer used to treat asthma along with its environmental triggers and risk factors. What if that data were analyzed and connected in a feedback loop to actually adjust the patient’s physical environment? This kind of adaptive dynamic may be possible through connectivity. “Smart” care systems like this could be personalized to our specific needs and risks. 2Now, it is important to recognize that achieving this network of networks will take more than connecting to care environments or to online communities. It will take more than connecting to a physician, to a social worker, or to a friend. This vision of interconnected health must also link people to the information and resources they need—when they need them-to get well and stay healthy. And it takes ubiquitous and pervasive broadband connectivity to make all this possible, which is why I am here and why the FCC is engaged. I would like to take another moment to applaud the vision and efforts of every company participating in today’s event for their efforts have led to major advancements in mobile health, such as: ? Remote patient monitoring technologies that provide vital, real-time data for personalized care plans, and ? Services in which patients can connect to clinicians for remote, video consultations. Much like the many partnerships that have advanced mobile health technologies, we need to continue to work together to streamline the approval of vital medical devices, which ensure that every American has access to the benefits of broadband. I am pleased to see all of the advancements being made in the mobile health industry and I look forward to the breakthroughs still on the horizon. Thank you.