1Remarks of FCC Commissioner Mignon L. Clyburn (as prepared)
5th Annual Telehealth Summit of South Carolina
Columbia, SC
March 30, 2017
Good afternoon. Thank you Director Poston for such a warm Palmetto State welcome.
While it is always great to come home, I am especially honored to have the opportunity to share 
with you what the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is doing to support, the 
extraordinary innovation taking place at the intersection of technology, broadband and health.
The critically acclaimed television producer and writer Shonda Rhimes once said, 
“Boundaries don't keep other people out. They fence you in.” Today, I am excited to say that we 
are committed to breaking boundaries, and connecting communities through the power of 
broadband and other advanced technologies. This commitment was reaffirmed two weeks ago, 
when FCC Chairman Pai announced the continuation of the Commission’s Connect2Health
FCC
Task Force that I pushed for some three years ago.
We live in an interconnected world, where time and distance no longer limit us. With 
broadband connectivity, industries can grow, communities can prosper, and ideas can spread 
without high price marketers, physical office space middlemen, or other gate keepers standing in 
the way. A physician can diagnose a patient from anywhere in the world. Medical professionals 
can collaborate from the most remote region, to a densely populated community that may also 
have the unfortunate distinction of being a clinical desert. Anyone can be connected to anywhere 
in a matter of seconds, so long, as they have the proper tools. This is why I am particularly 
pleased to join you and applaud your recognition that the FCC’s role here is extremely critical. 
By our own account, 34 million Americans or roughly ten percent of our citizens lack 
access to high-speed broadband, defined now as download speeds of 25 megabits per second 
(Mbps). And for those living in areas, where connectivity is widely available, affordability is too 
often a major barrier to access. This is simply unacceptable. It cannot be allowed to continue, 
because if we couple this with the millions of people who lack access to high quality health care
services, we have a clinical crisis on our hands. I am not sure if enough of us realize how 
incredibly fortunate we are to be living in the most enabling of times. Today, we are in a place 
and time, where broadband and technology can and should bring vital telehealth services into all 
communities, including rural areas and those with chronic shortages, when it comes to clinicians.
There are over 3,000 counties in the United States, and while they all have distinctive 
characteristics, too often many of them share an unfortunate rudimentary telehealth system, lack 
adequate resources, and have high rates of chronic disease. To address and remedy these
challenges, we must address them head on, but what we must not do, is address them in the 
ways, we have grown accustomed to. 
At the FCC, we actually have at our disposal, the data and the means, to direct our time 
and resources all the way down to the county level, where the picture is much different, than if 
we were to peer through the traditional national, regional or even a state lens. The wants and 
needs of Charleston differ from Oconee. The challenges in Allendale are not the same as those in 
2Union, and people who live in Darlington may not have the same outcomes, as those who call 
Greenville home. Technology, broadband and other advanced services, can empower and enable 
us to directly address and tailor-make health care delivery models and services, to all of these 
areas and places in between, and all of us would be doing less than our best, if we fail at fine 
tuning these efforts accordingly. 
And it is in this spirit, that I am pleased to introduce to some and share again with others, 
the FCC’s Mapping Broadband Health in America initiative. Launched by our 
Connect2Health
FCC
Task Force in August of last year, this tool represents a monumental step in 
identifying areas where there are opportunities for telehealth and complementary initiatives 
across the nation. 
We believe that it will help bring more awareness to the importance of providing 
communities with advanced health services through an innovative mapping platform. It is
designed to assist those committed to closing infrastructure gaps, to ensure that everyone has 
access to the technology necessary, and enable quick and top-rated health care assistance. 
Now you might ask, how can a mere map assist us in remedying our health care woes? 
This interactive tool, will enable those in both the public and private sectors to access and 
analyze statistics about broadband connectivity, as well as health and other indexes on a national, 
state, and county level. This is significant for several reasons. First, it will not only allow 
communities to understand how they compare to others in their respective states, or other parts of 
the country, but health care providers now will be able to effortlessly pinpoint areas that need 
additional attention and support. 
For example, while 90 percent of the United States has access to broadband, the number 
drops to 83 percent in South Carolina. While Richland County is holding strong with 98 percent 
broadband access, there are still many areas of South Carolina with far less connectivity. 
Fairfield County for instance, only has 54 percent coverage and over in Greenwood County, 
which has a population of just over 69,000, only six percent of the population has what the FCC 
considers real broadband access. 
Now imagine being able to overlay this broadband data, with key health information all 
the way down to the county level. This is exactly what the FCC’s mapping tool provides, and it 
is up and running today. You know all too well the statewide numbers: 12 percent of our citizens 
have diabetes, 32 percent suffer from obesity, and there are about 64 physicians available for 
every 100,000 of our citizens. The map gets even more specific, as it can look at the average 
number of sick days we have, which in case you were wondering, averages 3.6 days per month in 
South Carolina.  
Using this data, the FCC has also been able to identify, what we call the 100 “critical 
need” counties, meaning those communities with limited broadband access and very high health
needs. In South Carolina, four counties made the list: Chesterfield, Edgefield, Greenwood and 
Marlboro. 
3And as you can see, the detailed information provided by this tool is key to pinpoint 
specific areas in need of better broadband access and better health care options. And because of 
the map’s granularity, it can help the FCC and other agencies, formulate additional policies and 
specific regulatory actions that are smarter and more targeted, which in turn could further reduce 
gaps and enhance connectivity. Additionally, the mapping tool will offer industry stakeholders 
insight on possible collaborations and partnerships, as a means to strengthen broadband access 
and help link communities with fast connectivity. 
With continued collaboration among government agencies at the state and federal levels, 
broadband service providers, technology companies and stakeholders, will be better able to 
develop and address health care and connectivity challenges across the country. Because of the 
unique partnerships that are forming between public and private entities and increasingly quick 
communications taking place between doctors and patients, more illnesses are being cured, 
recovery turnarounds are shrinking, and lives are being saved.
Time and time again, I have witnessed the effect broadband has on health care. I traveled 
with the Connect2Health
FCC
Task Force on a number of “Beyond the Beltway” visits, to better 
understand how local communities, policymakers, physicians, and entrepreneurs employ their 
resources and utilize broadband to meet the needs of their community.
One of our more recent visits was to Houston, Texas. There we had the opportunity to 
discuss how broadband-connected environments can be used to improve mental and behavioral 
health. In 2014, we had the chance to visit the University of Virginia Center for Telehealth, 
where we saw first-hand, the true intersection of broadband and health policy. It was at UVA that 
we saw stroke neurologists and rural doctors connect through broadband to save stroke patients’ 
lives, and decrease recovery periods. 
Then in October, as part of my #ConnectingCommunities tour, I joined with Senator 
Shelley Moore Capito, for a tour of health facilities in West Virginia. We visited Preston 
Memorial Hospital, one of 20 critical-access hospitals in the state. During the visit, I spoke with 
hospital administrators and physicians about a telehealth program they are developing to treat 
infectious diseases. Despite opening a brand new, $38.5 million facility in 2015, the hospital 
faces challenges when it comes to broadband connectivity. In Preston County, where the hospital 
is based, nearly 40 percent of the population is without real broadband. Without high-speed 
connectivity, the hospital’s goal of bringing telehealth services into their patients’ homes will 
never be fully realized.
So now comes the question, of what we can do to tackle these challenges. Previously I 
have asked, what additional steps can the Commission take to maximize the benefits and 
opportunities, of the agency’s Healthcare Connect Fund (HCF). While the $400 million a year 
program has historically been undersubscribed, requests for support in funding year 2015, the 
most recent available, reached a historic high of nearly $378 million. Given the finite funding 
available for this program, I believe we should constantly be thinking about the best ways to 
improve its effectiveness.
4One such idea, is the RURAL Telehealth Act, introduced during the last Congress. This 
bipartisan bill recognizes, that non-rural hospitals and health-care providers, may be best 
positioned to bring telehealth services to their communities. I welcome your thoughts on how 
this legislation would impact South Carolinians, our fellow citizens and your goal of bringing 
advanced telehealth services to communities most in need.
With today’s technological advances, there are a plethora of available possibilities in the 
realm of telehealth, starting with the ability to connect patients to doctors in a matter of seconds. 
Palmetto Care Connections is helping to change lives, through its initiative to break the 
boundaries between communities, and help create an interconnected ecosystem between health 
care and broadband. I applaud you for your efforts, and thank you for your tremendous 
accomplishments.
Together, we will break boundaries at the intersection of broadband and health policy and 
show the world, just how much Palmetto cares.  
Thank you.