Connected Nation Inc. is a national a non-profit organization that promotes broadband deployment in communities around the United States through programs like its ConnectKentucky initiative, a public-private partnership whose mission is to ensure that 100 percent of households and businesses in the state have high-speed Internet access.

While it's not without its critics, the organization recently published a report that measured ConnectKentucky's impact on that state's economy. Connected Nation then extrapolated those results to the rest of the country and concluded that the U.S. would receive an economic stimulus of over $134 billion per year if Congress enacted pending legislation to introduce broadband deployment programs like ConnectKentucky in all 50 states.

Specifically, the report urged the 110th Congress to take action on the following bills:

• Connect the Nation Act of 2007, S. 1190 and H.R. 3627, sponsored by Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Rep. Zackary Space (D-OH) respectively. Both bills, which were introduced in 2007 and are awaiting futher action, would provide grants for statewide programs to measure broadband availability and adoption rates.
• The Broadband Data Improvement Act, S. 1492, sponsored by Sen. Daniel Inouye (D-HI). The bill, which was introduced in the Senate last May and is awaiting further action, calls for the FCC to revise how it defines broadband and to improve collection of data on the availability and quality of broadband services.
• The Broadband Census of America Act of 2007, H.R. 3919, sponsored by Rep. Ed Markey (D-MA). The bill passed the House last November and is awaiting action in the Senate.

In calculating the economic stimulus that might result from passage of that legislation, Connected Nation looked at the following factors on a state-by-state basis:

1. Income created by adding new jobs and/or preventing job losses
2. Healthcare cost savings resulting from individuals using the Internet to access information to make themselves healthier
3. Mileage savings from conducting more transactions online, resulting in less driving
4. Value of carbon offsets from reducing carbon dioxide emissions by doing less driving
5. Value of time saved by individuals using broadband at home

According to the report, California stands to gain the most, with an estimated annual impact of $17.3 billion. On the low end of the spectrum, it estimates that the impact on Wyoming would be a more modest $216 million per year. Check out this table for an overview of the nationwide impact.

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Tags: Broadband, Connected Nation, ConnectKentucky, green tech

Nonprofit think tank World Privacy Forum published a paper this week analyzing the privacy implications of consumers using personal health records (PHRs) to access their medical information.

PHRs are designed to offer consumers greater convenience by collecting information in one place and allowing them to easily retrieve and share that data. These records can contain a variety of data related to the patient's medical history and current condition, including details on prescriptions, allergies, lab results, family history and drug interactions.

While some individuals may maintain their PHRs on paper only, it's increasingly common for vendors to offer PC and Web-based systems so consumers can share their information electronically. 

The World Privacy Forum's analysis focuses specifically on use of PHRs that are not protected under the privacy rule of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), which regulates how healthcare providers and insurers handle personal medical information.

According to World Privacy Forum, many commercial PHR vendors are not covered by HIPAA and so those consumers face "significant privacy consequences" such as:

• Consumers could have their PHR data used for marketing and advertising purposes because HIPAA rules against marketing don't apply.
• In the event of a legal proceeding, a patient's PHR can be more easily subpoenaed by a third party than health records covered under HIPAA.
• Combining medical info from a variety of sources into a single PHR may backfire on consumers who don't want all of the details of their health history shared with their healthcare providers or insurers.
• On the other hand, some PHRs may be missing healthcare data because a physician refuses to authorize its release.
• Consumers may think they have more control over the disclosure of PHR records than they actually do.
• Privacy protections offered by PHR vendors may be weaker than consumers expect and may be subject to change without notice or consumer consent.

World Privacy Forum concludes with this statement:

Whether the benefits of PHRs are sufficient to overcome the real dangers to privacy remains to be seen. It is something that each potential user of a PHR must consider before enrolling. Any consumer worried about the privacy of personal health information should proceed with great caution before agreeing to sign up for a PHR, particularly those operating outside of HIPAA.

A PDF of the World Privacy Forum's paper is available here. Published: February 20, 2008.

For a different perspective, visit myPHR.com, a site operated by the American Health Information Management Association.

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Tags: digital health, personal health records, privacy

Nokia Siemens Networks commissioned London Business School professor Leonard Waverman to develop a new global information and communications technology (ICT) index called the Connectivity Scorecard that examines the extent to which governments, businesses and consumers use telecommunications connectivity to drive social and economic prosperity.

Unlike other indices that focus on infrastructure availability as the primary measurement of how "well-connected" a country is, the Connectivity Scorecard is designed to also measure telecommunications usage and its economic impact.

To start, Professor Waverman created two different rankings: one compares 16 so-called Innovation Driven countries and the other ranks nine Resource Driven countries (he borrows those terms from the World Economic Forum's definitions). With 10 being the highest possible score, the United States topped the Innovation Driven list with a 6.97 and Russia was first in the Resource Driven list with a 6.11.

The primary finding, as described in a report released earlier today, is that "there is much untapped potential in even the most advanced markets [and] countries that one normally thinks of as highly connected still score poorly on this scorecard." For example, Korea has built a reputation for having an extensive telecom infrastructure that offers consumers low-cost, high-speed broadband and innovative wireless services that surpass what's available in many other countries. But it ranks 10th among the Innovation Driven countries in the Connectivity Scorecard because it invests relatively little in the business sector as measured by this index.

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Tags: broadband, rankings, telecom