The US Federal Communications Commission will renew its search for a permanent healthcare director, following the recommendations of a taskforce set up in June to find proposals for boosting mobile health in the US.  The mHealth Task Force, which included US operators AT&T and Verizon Communications, came up with five broad goals, as well as more detailed recommendations.

One goal was that the FCC "should continue to play a leadership role in advancing mobile health adoption" and should fill the vacant healthcare director's position. The FCC says it will act to fill the post, which is a central point of contact for interested parties in the healthcare sector. The commission has faced criticism for not having filled this gap in its line-up. The taskforce was formed this summer by the FCC.

Another response from the FCC might have an effect internationally. The commission says it will work with other telecoms regulators to make spectrum available for medical body area networks (MBANs), as well as pushing for harmonisation with other countries. The FCC recently allocated frequencies in the 2360-2400 MHz part of the spectrum for such services which enable small, low-powered sensors to be attached to a patient’s body to monitor their vital signs. Harmonisation would enable patients to travel internationally while still being monitored, as well as improving economies of scale for healthcare vendors who lobbied the FCC for the spectrum allocation in the US.

In addtition FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski backed a call from the taskforce for mobile health to be routinely available as part of  medical best practice by 2017. Other recommendations covered areas such as wireless health testbeds, broadband networks for hospitals, the collection of telehealth data and the international rollout of MBANs, as well as renewing its own search for a health care director.

The FCC will consider an order to streamline its experimental licensing rules to encourage testbeds for wireless health devices. Likewise it will consider an order to reform the Rural Health Care (RHC) programme so that groups of hospitals can jointly apply for funds to improve broadband capacity and enable electronic health records.

In addition, as part of the same order as the RHC one, the FCC says it will collect more data on broadband and telehealth applicants from participants with the aim of enabling more targeted support for telemedicine deployments.

The taskforce's five goals were: An FCC  leadership role in advancing mobile health adoption; Federal agency collaboration to promote innovation, protect patient safety and avoid duplicating regulations; Expanded broadband access for healthcare, with the FCC building on existing programs and linking programs when possible; Continued FCC efforts to increase capacity, reliability, interoperability and RF safety of mHealth technologies; and industry support for continued investment, innovation and job creation in the mobile-health sector.  For the task force's full report, see here.