Telecommunity Product, Services and Costs

The Do It Yourself Community Assessment Workbook | Community Assessment Survey Packet | Residential Phone Survey Script and Survey Instrument | Rural Health Futures Analysis Assistance

Rural Health Futures, Inc., through its work with rural communities over the years, has identified a cost-effective process that encourages rural communities to use RHF's expertise to discover the economic opportunities presented by using advanced telecommunications and technologies. The emphasis in this process is to:

  1. Educate local citizens on each technology and how they might benefit from its use.
  2. Illustrate how other communities or individuals are using technology.
  3. Discover current uses of technology in the community and how those technologies can be further utilized to accomplish the community's goals.
  4. Ascertain the current actions of local businesses and how these actions can be changed to make use of technology.
  5. Identify the current expenditures in the community on those activities most impacted by advanced technology.
  6. Identify the regional collaborations already in place or developing and how technology can be used to support these collaborations.
  7. Identify a technology use profile of the community and the region.
  8. Develop a technology strategy for the deployment of advanced technologies.
  9. Develop a cost and benefit analysis that can be used by either local entrepreneurs or by Rural Health Futures, Inc. to build a local advanced technology business.
  10. Identify a strategy that can be used by the community and the region to use advanced technology to accomplish its economic development, education, business, or health care goals.


For most communities Rural Health Futures' staff is responsible for collecting and documenting the various aspects of each community and insuring that an appropriate fit exists between the community and technology. For some communities, though, it is appropriate for the community to perform its own assessment and technical plan. Rural Health Futures has attempted to address both of these audiences.