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Thank you, Barry, for that kind introduction and for putting together that video.

It's a great honor to be here as the first CEO of a major wireless company to speak at HIMSS. It's an even greater honor to be in the distinguished company of your other 2010 keynoters. I want to thank you for having me speak before an authority like Dr. Blumenthal, before Sanjay Gupta, who in addition to his award-winning health reporting for CNN, saved lives in Haiti; Harry Markopolos who pursued the truth about Bernie Madoff when nobody believed him; and Sully Sullenberger, who safely landed his plane in the Hudson. Heroes are a tough act to follow.

Mr. Markopolos and Captain Sullenberger are famous, and rightfully so. But I know there are a lot of unsung heroes right here today, in this room. In the bitter debates about health care this year, it has too often been forgotten how important that the job of the men and women who deliver patient care is.

You are leaders, too. The members of HIMSS have been working for decades to take health care IT out of the 70s, into the 21st Century and beyond.

Your leadership is why I'm here today. Sprint is a leading-edge technology company and we believe that there is a historic opportunity for wireless to transform healthcare by boosting efficiency, raising quality and reducing costs.

But even the best technology company cannot seize that opportunity on its own. We need you.

• You are the people on the front lines.
• You know which IT applications healthcare providers and patients need; and
• You know what technology really works in a hospital, in a physician's office, or when a patient is recovering at home.

We want to help you by providing the tools you need to transform healthcare. We want you to help us by providing the benefit of your experience, your insights, and your ideas.

We need new IT partnerships and approaches to healthcare. I believe healthcare faces a once-in-a-lifetime combination of great challenges and breathtaking possibilities. Let's start with the challenges.

As you might imagine, at Sprint we work with a lot of different industries. Recently, I was invited to the White House to discuss how wireless is increasing productivity, reducing costs, boosting customer satisfaction and increasing competitiveness in different sectors of the economy, including

• Manufacturing
• Transportation
• Professional services
• Government, and more

However, if I had to pick the one industry facing the biggest gap between the need for change and the use of wireless technology to support that change, it would be healthcare.

Healthcare is confronting a series of dramatic shifts that demand fundamental change:

• The baby boomers are moving into their 60s, and needing more medical care.
• The Administration has proposed sweeping reforms in health care.
• New government regulations are forcing a shift toward electronic patient records and centralized information.
• Rising costs mean the United States spends more than any other industrialized country in the world on healthcare.
• Chronic conditions such as obesity and diabetes, which account for 85% of healthcare dollars, are on the rise.

While the challenges grow, too many healthcare facilities have to rely on aging telecom systems that hinder collaboration. The healthcare industry spends only 2 to 3% of revenues on IT, compared to most industries, which spend 6 to 8%.

It brings to mind Charles Darwin's saying: "It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change."

The good news is that the hard work HIMSS has been doing is paying off -- healthcare is responding to change. You're being helped by consumers. Internet-savvy patients and families expect access to health information and care anytime, anyplace.

Healthcare telecom spending is growing; it is expected to be up 44% over the next three years (from $8.6 billion to $12.4 billion). Wireless apps, devices and solutions will account for almost two thirds of that added spending.

In short, there could not be a better time for a new kind of partnership between us than right now.

What if I had talked about you partnering with a wireless company back in 1986?

If I'd tried to tell you that you could use one of those old cell phones that were first designed for installation in your car to monitor patients or look at EKGs, you would have laughed me off the stage.

Now, almost two thirds of physicians use a smartphone such as this. And more than 80% will be using a smartphone in two years.

Today, on a planet of 6.8 billion people there are more than four billion active cell phones ---more mobile phones in the world than TVs, PCs, and cars...combined. The cell phone is the most rapidly-adopted technology in the history of this planet.

Here in America, wireless services are a part of daily life for more than 277 million of us. High mobile phone penetration provides an incredible opportunity for us to work together to improve health care and health care access, regardless of location, age, gender or disability. Let me give you some examples of what our industry is doing, right now, to help you realize this opportunity.

You know all those jokes about doctors and bad handwriting? Well it's not so funny when out of the four billion prescriptions written every year, 4% contain errors... some of them the result of that bad handwriting.

Dr. Stuart Weisman, a gastroenterologist in California once said, "The first time I saw a Palm, I realized it was exactly the same size as a prescription pad. I immediately started thinking about how the Internet connected to the Palm could change healthcare."

Inputting patient information directly into a smartphone eliminates the bad handwriting problem. In addition to saving lives, e-prescribing could save as much as $27 billion annually for the US healthcare system.

A new generation of smartphone apps provides instant, secure access to lab results, x-rays, vital signs, drug-to-drug interactions, and other vital medical records.

In just a few years, we've gone from looking up home remedies on the Internet to having a smartphone app called FluRadar which provides up-to-date flu information concerning H1N1, and tracks outbreaks geographically. There is a skin cancer application that contains a guide to identifying the shapes and sizes of a benign and malignant melanoma.

Have you ever accidentally coughed into your mobile phone? Now you might want to do it on purpose. There is an app that analyzes your cough and tells you whether it is wet or dry and productive or nonproductive.

Other advanced monitoring and diagnostic apps are decreasing the cost of healthcare by reducing emergency and other visits to hospitals or doctors' offices. They are also making medicine much more accessible than it has ever been.

At Washington University in St. Louis, for example, two engineers have invented an ultrasound probe that works on a half-watt of power from a cell phone. That means ultrasound exams could be conducted nearly anywhere, while the image is piped to a doctor far from the scene. The invention could not only cut the cost of ultrasound machines, but also put them in the pockets of EMT's, battlefield medics, school nurses and obstetricians working far from a hospital.

Wireless monitoring devices are also transforming the quality of life of people battling chronic conditions. For example, a few years ago, a nurse had to go on temporary disability because of her chronic obesity. Being at home, with no contact with co-workers, her conditions worsened. As she became less active, and more disheartened, her interactions with her caregivers diminished drastically. She was spiraling down.

But then, her health care providers equipped this medical worker with a wireless monitor, and started regular video consultations with her. No longer isolated, the patient got engaged in a wellness program. She improved to the point that she came off disability and returned to her work in healthcare.

Studies have shown that if patients suffering from chronic conditions let their doctors monitor them wirelessly, we could cut $21 billion per year from our health care spending through reduced hospitalization and nursing home costs.

To multiply the number of these great ideas and foster better ones, Sprint is following an Open strategy, encouraging developers to develop innovative apps on multiple platforms including Android, Palm's webOS, RIM (which some of you know as Blackberry), Windows Mobile and Java.

This short video shows how Sprint is working with our partners along the healthcare spectrum -- some of them with people at this conference -- to help connect caregivers and patients in innovative ways.

The two customers in that video, Dr. Greg Ator with University of Kansas Hospital, and Eddie Cuellar with Methodist Healthcare System, have deployed a custom solution Sprint develops with GE Healthcare, throughout their facilities.

Together with GE Healthcare, we can provide a powerful and simple end-to-end wireless solution that connects every caregiver in every corner of the hospital. No longer do they have to be tethered to a phone or a computer, or run across the facility to view an x-ray or lab result. This solution securely manages all critical patient data and ensures caregivers have access to it from anywhere within the hospital. They can even securely view and respond to patient monitoring information from almost anywhere within or outside the hospital.

Wirelessly connecting healthcare facilities across the country is one example of how Sprint is transforming the delivery of care.

I'd like to highlight four other areas along the healthcare spectrum where we've forged solutions or created partnerships.

First is care for chronic diseases. As you know, Type 2 diabetes is one of the nation's most serious health problems. Nearly 60% of people who have the disease don't have it under control.

A Baltimore woman who is diabetic takes oral medication and checks her blood sugar level several times a day. Her wireless phone, equipped with a virtual coach developed by our partner Welldoc, is helping her. When she takes her medicine or eats, she types it into the phone. She and her doctors can access that information and monitor progress. So far, she and others using the virtual coach, are doing a much better job of managing their condition.

Next, confronting pandemics. Equipping caregivers with mobility tools allows them to participate in the care delivery processes from anywhere without interruption. This is essential for caregivers who need to treat patients and who can't afford to be isolated at home for days due to a widespread pandemic.

During the H1N1 outbreak, Sprint was recognized for our preparedness efforts. We implemented an enterprise-wide emergency preparedness plan that included restricting travel and encouraging workers who felt they might be infected, or who worked in affected areas, to work from home. By offering our employees Sprint's suite of mobility products and services so they could "telecommute," we minimize the productivity impact from absent employees. These same mobility tools helped our customers remain productive and ensure operations could continue to run well in spite of physical "absenteeism."

The next area is a deadly one - heart attacks. We're working with mVisum to save lives. Physicians can view images and charts, including ECG's, CT scans and x-rays, directly from their mobile device through the mVisum application. A cardiologist can be alerted through his or her Blackberry that a patient, complaining of chest pains, is being transported to the hospital. If the ambulance is equipped with a wirelessly-enabled ECG, they can instantly transmit data to the hospital and to the doctor's Blackberry. The doctor can then view and analyze the ECG from their smartphone and determine if the patient was having a heart attack or not. The time saved from waiting until the patient arrives at the emergency room doors, to getting a de-brief from the urgent care team, to waiting for x-rays, is extremely valuable.

Our final example has to do with caregivers, who are gradually moving away from the hospital bedside. Moving out of the hospital not only reduces costs, it improves the quality and access of care. We're working with partners to provide more opportunities to see more patients in more places.

Imagine that a pregnancy is high-risk and the expecting mother has to spend the next two months on bed-rest. Going to the doctor's office every week or two for check-ups can be risky for the patient and the unborn baby. The hospital can now provide a remote patient monitoring device, the Intel Health Guide. The patient takes it home. This device is powered by Sprint's 3G network and allows for videoconferences with caregivers. It also connects to monitoring peripherals (the blood pressure cuff, or the cardiac monitor, for example). The physician can monitor the situation 24/7 and perform Video-Office-Visits weekly, without putting anyone at risk.

Or, perhaps you live in a rural area far from the specialist's office, and your son or daughter is undergoing rehabilitation at home, and traveling is not an option. Your health plan could provide your child's therapist with a Creative Labs inPerson mobile videoconferencing device. Wirelessly connected to the Internet through Sprint, the therapist links to the specialist no matter how far away the specialist's office might be. The specialist is able to watch therapy sessions and consult with the patient and family with the therapist on-site. Costs go down and quality of care goes up.

As the population ages, home healthcare is growing dramatically, and we believe it can greatly benefit from mobile technologies. In fact, the best projections are that the U.S. market for wireless home-based healthcare applications and services will grow from $304 million to $4 billion by 2013.

Now, we'll peer into the future. Yogi Berra once said, "The future ain't what it used to be."

Applications that use graphical information, charts or especially video, particularly high-resolution, or high-definition video, require lots of bandwidth, bandwidth that today's networks will have a difficult time supporting.

Healthcare providers will rely more and more on next generation wireless networks, or 4G. 4G is working right now throughout the city of Atlanta. With this mobile hotspot, {Sprint Overdrive} as many as five Wi-Fi-enabled devices can access the Internet, on-the-go, at blazing 4G speeds and resolution. 4G not only provides multi-megabyte per second download speeds, but because it's so efficient, customers can get more gigabytes of use per month at the same cost as 3G.

The FCC is committed to broadband, and mobile broadband in particular. With Sprint's roll-out of our 4G network with Clearwire, the U.S. is regaining the lead we used to have in global wireless technology.

4G also helps healthcare providers comply with HIPPA requirements. 4G uses secure, licensed spectrum, an improvement over Wi-Fi when it comes to protecting privacy.

4G technology also will make it easier for healthcare providers to expand their reach to advanced wireless devices beyond just phones.

One research firm predicts there will be 2.5 billion connected data-centric devices in use worldwide by 2014... And more than half will not be mobile phones. They will be TVs, netbooks, remote monitoring devices, and video conferencing devices, to name a few.

Imagine home healthcare with 4G-enabled cameras and monitors so that, even when the healthcare professional is not present, a patient's skin condition or medication dosage can be monitored.

With 4G networks, physicians across time zones can collaborate virtually, and consult with patients in their homes via an in-room monitor; live surgery could be broadcast through a wireless video transmission real time; or specialists could download large radiology images on a mobile device to speed-up diagnostics.

Imagine having an ambulance equipped with 4G connectivity that can broadcast live video of EMTs treating a patient while on the way to the hospital. They could upload patient stats and stream live video to the on-call doctor, speeding triage, and shortening the time from the patient's arrival at the hospital to undergoing life-saving surgery.

Or imagine monitoring high-risk expectant mothers through a wireless recording 'belt' with sensors that detect fetal heart rates and contractions. The wireless belt can send the unborn babies' vitals via a 4G connection to a laptop, or to the doctor's smartphone. Doctors would know instantly about any changes or anomalies.

And soon, I will be able to take a pill the size of a vitamin which could wirelessly monitor the medicine in my system. As we move toward 4G networks, the pill will be equipped, not only to send the data to my physician, it will send images, too - straight to my doctor's wireless device. 4G smartphones will be out this year, and they will come with very high-resolution screens, Blu-Ray quality.

Before long you'll take that pill, and your doctor will instantly have a report that will tell him or her whether you are taking your medicine, and show how your body is responding.

I hope you'll try 4G out, at our booth on the convention floor. Atlanta is one of the 27 4G markets we've launched so far, covering 30 million people. By the end of this year, we plan to cover 120 million people in the U.S.

Let's hear from people who work in your field.

In conclusion, the pace of change since 1986 has been amazing. We are entering a time when every device that can be connected will be connected to the Internet and to other devices. This trend is creating new and compelling business models that are changing the way many industries operate. It will certainly change healthcare.

From point of care delivered at an accident site or emergency room, to recovery and follow-up monitoring and in-home care, wireless technology, combined with mobile machine-to-machine applications, can be integrated across the entire care continuum. More and more health care providers will implement these advanced solutions.

I started off this morning by talking about leadership and partnership...and heroism. Many of you do the heroic work of caring for people, and others provide vital assistance to caregivers. All of you have been leaders in ensuring that healthcare providers have the technology they need. We want to partner with you in this important work.

Thank you.