The national broadband plan by FCC is likely to enhance health care in remote areas.

The FCC's national broadband plan includes a 25-page chapter on health care, and has asked the Department of Health and Human Services to make e-care projects a "top priority".

Clinics, hospitals and even doctors’ offices are expected to put health records into a secure database, which can be accessed by patients and their authorized care providers, wherever they happen to be located.

In an instance, after Beverly, a 49-year-old stroke patient living 75 miles outside Boston, arrived at her local hospital, the personnel set up a video link to Massachusetts General Hospital. There, a stroke expert observed her and carried out a neurological exam while receiving vital signs and lab data.

Besides saving lives, video consultation and other "telehealth" techniques can save money by providing facilities remote access to world-renowned experts without having them on board. The broadband plan said that evading the expenditures of moving patients from correctional facilities and nursing homes to emergency departments and doctors’ offices can possibly result in $1.2 billion in yearly savings.

According to a study referred to in the FCC's report, by simply opting to electronic health systems with on-screen reminders to prompt doctors to recommend influenza and pneumonia vaccinations can save up to 39,000 lives yearly.

Mobile health delivery via laptops, smartphones and other handy devices is also seen as a possibility.