Cable has opportunity to excel in healthcare broadband business

The cable industry, especially with DOCSIS 3.0's higher broadband speeds, has an opportunity to be a leader in connecting the healthcare industry from hospitals to doctors to patients, Mike Braham, vice president of business with Cox Business in Hampton Roads, Va., said during a conversation with FierceCable yesterday at The Cable Show in Los Angeles.

Cable has "so many assets ... we're standing on top of a hill" above other telecommunications providers seeking to serve the healthcare industry, Braham said. Among other things, he said, cable's local presence fits well with a healthcare network that is also local, linking hospitals and regional care centers with medical groups, doctors and eventually patients.

"It completely fits the cable model," he said, pointing to healthcare's increasing reliance on electronic medical records that a patient can access. Cox's management, he said, works with hospital CIOs and doctors on the business aspects of "life and death" broadband connectivity.

The cable industry, he concluded, has "first mover status" in the space because it has a broadband connection of up to 50 Mbps that telcos can't match.

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