A key technology that can be expected to be utilized increasingly in healthcare is Digital Subscriber Line technology. Improvements in signal processing technology allows existing twisted pair copper wires to the home to deliver over one megabit per second of bandwidth. There are distance limitations however that require the customer to be within 18,000 feet of the telecom carriers central office. With DSL a service provider established a central service location with appropriate switching equipment to support DSL services. Subscribers use a DSL modem which provides them with digital connectivity and also provides telephone service over the same copper wires.
Subscribers can select from a palette of bandwidth options.
The subscriber designates the central service location to which they connect. This facilitates added security since the only connections that can be made to the central service site are by those customers who have subscribed to the service. For healthcare applications DSL provides an inexpensive methond to give high-speed access to information for physicans on call, or for affiliated providers in private offices. As more hospitals begin to utilize web server based integration techniques a DSL connection can provide a physician at home or at a remote office with access to all the information sources necessary. The primary drawback to DSL at this time limited deployment.