Mobile devices have truly become a lifeline for its users today. What could
be better than not having to go to a hospital, to get an ultrasound test and do
it sitting in your office chair, with the help of your smartphone? The humble
handset has a new role now, that of a portable medical device or a pocket
doctor. Mobile devices are increasingly being used to provide remote sensing and
medical diagnostics in both developed and developing countries. Mobile phones
can be integrated with microscopes to diagnose malaria in remote regions, and
wireless networks can be used to alert medical services when real time
monitoring services identify a fallen elder or dropping heart rate.
The trend of employing wearable medical devices to measure pulse,
respiration, ECG, blood glucose level and patient mobility is catching on in
India. Handheld devices support clinicians in urban hospitals, and portable
diagnostic kits allow remote health care teams to reach rural India more easily.
The widespread availability of mobile phones and recent experiments with
low-cost, low range broadband wireless networks have brought connectivity to all
these opportunities.
Experts at the Washington University have recently devised an approach, that
has the potential to make tests like taking ultrasound images available in areas
where not even hospitals are available. The technique relies on coupling the USB
based ultrasound probe technology with smartphones, resulting in a mobile
platform that fits in the palm of your hand.
Mobile electronic health tools such as cell phones and telemedicine
technologies are rapidly transforming the face and context of healthcare service
delivery around the world.
According to UN, there are 2.2 bn mobile phones in the developing world,
compared to 305 mn computers and some 11 mn hospital beds. In such a scenario,
where India alone has over 420 mn mobile subscribers, exploiting the
opportunities of mobile technology for healthcare would be a most rational
initiative.
In India, mobile devices are largely being used for disease surveillance. In
India, an year old NGO called Handhelds for Health is working towards empowering
the field health-worker with handheld mobile devices to travel to remote areas
for data collection and report information in near real-time. This is to enable
the healthcare providers to increase health coverage to underserved remote
communities. At present, it is running data collection projects in Karnataka.
A range of mobile computing devices like Nokia tablet, Mobilis, Moto Q and
Simputers are currently being considered for disease surveillance applications.
Motorola's enterprise handheld mobile computers are crucial devices sitting
in the palms of healthcare workers. These help in mobilizing and automating
medical rounding process with a wireless networking solution and handheld
computers from Motorola. This also eliminates multiple steps in data collection
and entry, allowing physicians and nurses to deliver more efficient and
personalized care to their patients. Other devices of Motorola's handheld
computers are equipped with barcode scanners and provide all the information in
the hands of doctors and nurses. The latest ones in the market are Motorola's FR
series of mobile computers which serve the needs of professionals in the
healthcare system.
Besides, lowpower bluetooth connections are also set to enable even more
health functionalities for the mobile phone. Bluetooth low energy is touted to
enable low cost devices to send their data to the web. According to IMS Research
analysts, bluetooth low energy has the potential to be the fastest shipping
wireless technology ever. By 2013, over 1 bn devices will be shipped and 70 %
mobile phones being sold with bluetooth functionality will support low energy
bluetooth.
Heena Jhingan
heenaj@cybermedia.co.in
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