Why Conditions are Ripe for Enabling Care Everywhere

About 30 million people in the United States live in “healthcare deserts,” areas where the local population has limited access to healthcare due to a scarcity of providers, medical facilities, or long wait times for appointments. Care access is also affected by considerations including affordability, internet access and health literacy, further restricting care access. These healthcare deserts are most prevalent in rural areas – regions also hit with recent hospital and service line closures. Razor-thin hospital margins and clinician shortages challenge the ability to expand services, creating new opportunities for mobile technology to fill the gap.Care delivery is reaching more diverse settings, all requiring connectivity across locations and in-between. When hospitals open a new clinic or ambulatory surgical center (ASC), they need to access systems at the flagship hospital, possibly built decades earlier and requiring new wiring and cabling.