IT and cell phones in healthcare

NEW DELHI, INDIA: On November 25-26, a symposium on IT and Cell Phones in Healthcare was organized in the city. Welcoming participants from India, Australia, and the UK, C. Peter Waegemann, CEO of Medical Records Institute, explained the history of the Mobile Healthcare Alliance (2002 to 2006), the beginning of the Center for Cell Phone Applications in Healthcare (C-PAHC) under the aegis of the Medical Records Institute, and its recent transformation into the Boston-based not-for-profit organization m-Health Alliance Inc.

The four goals of the m-Health Alliance are to promote development and adoption of a wide range of healthcare applications on cell phones and cite them as the future conduit of interoperability for essential health information.

* Work with developers and users to encourage and coordinate these developments and their adoption.

* Serve as the international center and forum where interested parties can be informed about and contribute to cell phone-related developments in healthcare.

* Identify applications for which solutions are currently developed and/or are currently available.

* Provide a neutral platform for developers, healthcare planners, health informatics professionals, healthcare providers, and others to discuss common interests toward realizing m-health’s potential.

The discussion circled around the fact that India does not have the infrastructure for electronic health records and electronic medical records but may be able to leapfrog into an advanced state by using a new ecosystem based on mobile phones. Every month, about 10 million new mobile phones are added.  Yet, in rural areas, often only voice communication is possible.

In this and a meeting later on November 26, applications having good potential in India were identified, including: 

* For the top 10-30 percent of the population, a phone-based personal health record (PHR) based on the Continuity of Care Record (CCR) may enable the wealthiest and most educated people in India to use such data for continuity of care: connectivity between caregivers, pharmacies/chemists and others. The dataset could be in English. For implementation purposes, cooperation with both health insurance industry and healthcare IT ecosystems (such as Microsoft) is necessary.

* Mobile-based teaching and simple telemedicine applications.

* Emergency systems based on mobile phone communication.

* Phone-based care assistance and communication with care centers from rural areas.

- Mobile-based imaging solutions including communication with rural areas.

- Decision support software.

- Guidelines.

- Others.

* Care solutions for hospitals, clinics, and doctors’ offices based on mobile phone computing and communication systems.

One-on-one meetings with potential participants in such projects were suggested prior to the next m-Health Alliance meeting in India. Additionally, in November 26 discussions, m-Health Alliance was asked to conduct webinars in which these opportunities could be further explored.  It was suggested that some of the more advanced companies demonstrate their systems in these webinars.  The m-Health Alliance is exploring scheduling the first webinar before the end of the year.